Early Election Results: Greg Young Wins City Council Seat, Other Races Too Close to Call
As expected, Shanelle Scales-Preston and Mike Barbanica are locked in a tight race for a seat on County Board of Supervisors; MUSD's Measure O is just short of 55% required for passage
Good morning,
Here is where things stand in local races based on the early mail-in and Election Day counts; late-arriving ballots will continue to be counted in the days and weeks ahead.
Based on past election trends, I believe these races can be safely called at this point:
Greg Young appears to have defeated Dylan Radke to win the District 2 seat on the Martinez City Council. Young holds a lead of 349 votes, or roughly 12 percentage points, a margin that in all likelihood will be too great for Radke to close with remaining ballots. This is a blow to the Thousand Friends of Martinez open space political action committee, which endorsed and heavily backed Radke’s candidacy. Young’s victory also means that he will be the first Black member of the City Council in modern history (if not ever), adding to the growing diversity of the body. Incumbent Satinder Malhi, who ran unopposed for the District 3 seat, became the first Sikh-American council member when he was appointed to fill a vacant seat in 2023. Young will replace longtime incumbent Mark Ross.
Former Martinez City Council member Anamarie Avila Farias, a Democrat, has been elected to the state Assembly, easily winning her race against Republican Sonia Ledo for the District 15 seat. Avila Farias had over 63% of the vote as of this morning.
Current District 15 Assembly member Tim Grayson has won election to the District 9 state Senate seat, defeating fellow Democrat Marisol Rubio, a San Ramon City Council member. Grayson led the vote count, 56% to 44%, early Wednesday.
Martinez Unified School District trustee Yazmin Llamas has been elected to the Area 3 seat on the Contra Costa County Board of Education (currently held by Avila Farias). She had 61.5% of the vote in her race against Vicki Gordon, a former MUSD trustee. Llamas’ election will create a vacancy on the MUSD board that her fellow board members will likely fill through an appointment to serve the remaining two years of her term.
The following races remain too close to call.
Shanelle Scales-Preston, a Pittsburg City Council member, holds a slim 67-vote lead over Mike Barbanica, an Antioch council member, in the race to fill the District 5 seat on the Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors. This race likely won’t be called for weeks given the current margin, though Scales-Preston would seem to be the favorite given that she won most of the late-counted ballots in the March primary. The winner will succeed Federal Glover, who is retiring.
Logan Campbell holds a 90-vote lead over incumbent Carlos Melendez in the race for the Area 1 seat on the MUSD Board of Trustees. That’s an advantage of more than 4 percentage points, making Campbell the clear favorite to prevail when all the ballots are counted. This was the only competitive race on the school board.
Measure O, the MUSD construction bond measure, is slightly below the 55% threshold required to pass, standing at 53.5% Wednesday morning. Its fate will almost certainly depend on how the remaining vote comes in; a similar measure two years ago narrowly failed.
That’s it for now. The Elections Office will likely update vote counts at the end of the week, and I’ll provide updates you all as they come in.
P.S. For anyone who hasn’t yet heard, the presidential race has been called for Donald Trump.
But yeah, I will agree--I did not even look at the Radke race on line. I so assumed (and wanted) him to win. I do want to say, I am tired of Kevin Murray having so much power. Radke has the power he has because of the good he has done in this town on his own (nevermind his parents). Young was given a big treasure chest because AMAF gave him part of hers, and she backed heavily by Murray who dictates what people can speak on FB, particularly Rants and Raves. He has also blocked me, who put the entire history and many individual building's resources, from looking at the Historic Society web page simply because when he joined that board I said to him "Kevin, do not become one of the bad guys" and so he feels like he can control me too. I had to take the prez of the HS to court for libel per se, but not even he (John Curtis) would block the HS FB page from me. Murray, in my opinion as it pertains to public policy, is interested in power and hides behind good works and therefore directed Young campaign while Radke is interested in authority that directs non-selfish civic purposes.
Craig, there have been local elections where not all the ballot were added up and the candidate who would not end up winning was 10% ahead midnight November 5th. Thompson/McKillop was one of these as was the Open Space Measure (forget the letter). It will not be called for some weeks and yes, in races with fewer votes, yes it can flip.