Brianne Zorn Elected Mayor of Martinez
With almost all votes counted, the first-term councilwoman edged planning commissioner Sean Trambley by about 1.2 percentage points; Debbie McKillop clings to narrow lead for council seat
Brianne Zorn has won a crowded and tightly contested election to succeed Rob Schroder as the mayor of Martinez. Updated election results posted by the Contra Costa Elections Department on Wednesday afternoon put the first-term councilwoman 192 votes ahead of planning commissioner Sean Trambley. Longtime Councilwoman Lara DeLaney, who led after the Election Night vote, was a close third.
Only about 2 percentage points separated Zorn, Trambley and DeLaney in the race to succeed Schroder, who is stepping down after 20 years as the city’s mayor. The other three candidates, former mayor Mike Menesini, longtime Councilman Mark Ross and resident Michael Ayers, finished well behind the top three.
Ross has two more years left in his term on the City Council, but DeLaney will be departing after 20 years when the new council is sworn in. Jay Howard, who defeated Nakenya Allen 58 to 42 percent in the District 1 council race, will take DeLaney’s seat. Zorn’s elevation to mayor will create a vacancy for the District 3 seat to be filled on the council.
For the second time in four years, it looks as though incumbent Debbie McKillop will hold onto her council seat by roughly two dozen votes. She was clinging to a 26-vote lead over Benjamin Therriault for the District 4 seat; she won her race four years ago by 23 seats over John Stevens. With only 6,800 ballots remaining to be tabulated countywide, it looks doubtful that there will be enough remaining votes to change the outcome of this race.
The only other local race that remained too close to call before Wednesday was the Measure K Martinez Unified School District bond measure to fund construction and renovation projects. It fell about 2.5 percentage points short of the 55% required for passage. It would have been the third school district bond measure to land on the property tax bills of MUSD property owners, joining measures passed in 2010 and 2016.
I hope to do a more thorough follow-up on the election and results in the coming days. Stay tuned and thanks again for reading!
That’s such great news about Brianne! She will bring a fresh perspective to our town.
If 100% of the votes have been counted to determine Mayor and City Council winners, how can Measure K be too close to call? Stuff like that is what makes people suspect shenanigans in elections. Unpopular opinion maybe but I hope K fails to pass. Since we bought our home in 1998 there have been continual Martinez School Bonds on our property taxes. And now multiple tax assessments. Measure K would make 3 Bonds (taxes).