Measure R and Measure Q Both Pass Overwhelmingly –
Joe Krovoza to no one’s surprise finished a strong first to win the Mayor Pro Tem. He will serve as Mayor beginning in 2012. Whether he serves earlier will be a point of intrigue in the next six months. Mr. Krovoza who appeared to be the front runner to finish first through out, received 7,284 or 37.6% of the votes. He finished first in every precinct but one around campus and Olive Drive.
Rochelle Swanson, who entered relatively late and seemed to gain strength as the campaign proceeded. When she had a 350 vote lead following the absentee counts, most sensed that she would eventually win. However, it became a long night as election returns once again lagged. By 12:30, most of the other counties in the region were long since completed, and yet Yolo County had only about 40% of its precincts reporting.
Nevertheless that early lead held as did the belief that she would be stronger on election day than she was prior to election day. It is not clear that she increased her percentage, but she certainly never lost ground as the lead expanded first to 599 and then finally to 868. There might be a few stray absentees as there always is, but that is the extent.
Sydney Vergis finished third with 4527 and 23.4% of the vote. Ms. Vergis making her second run, began this election cycle as a favorite to get the second seat on the council. However, in the last month her campaign seemed to bog down. She had difficulty raising money, getting heavily outspent by her two opponents who raised funding. She was mired in controversies, most of them the result of her overzealousness supporters. The Marty West-Ruth Asmundson effort did not help at best and backfired sparking controversy at worst.
Marty West was heard accusing Rochelle Swanson of being a Palin supporter and there were a number of various rumors circulated. In the final days, Lyle Smith both wrote a letter to the editor suggesting that Ms. Swanson was trying to hide her Republican ties and circulated a door hanger in the final days opposing Ms. Swanson and supporting himself to become a member of the Democratic Central Committee. The move did not work and Mr. Smith finished seventh in a seven candidate race where the top five were seated. (Full disclosure, Cecilia Escamilla-Greenwald, my wife, was on that ballot and finished second. Jerry Kaneko, the former Councilmember finished first, Lucas Frerichs finished third, Jack Zwald, ASUCD President finished fourth, and Terri Thorfinnson gained the fifth and final seat).
Jon Li and Daniel Watts as expected finished fourth and fifth. Neither of them spent campaign money on the race. Mr. Li who was a frequent critic of the current council and a supporter of the Viable System Model finished fourth with 6.1% of the vote and 1187 votes. Daniel Watts made an impact early by pointing out the city had unconstitutional municipal ordinances, finished fifth with 993 votes or 5.1%. He was the only candidate other than Joe Krovoza to win a precinct, granted it was with just 17 votes.
Neither Measure on the ballot had much opposition. The sales tax revenue passed by nearly a 3-1 margin 74.5 to 25.5. It received 8838 yes votes. Measure R did even better. The renewal to Measure R, the right to vote on future use of open space and ag lands overwhelmingly won with 76.7% although it actually received fewer yes votes than Q with 8801.
The city will keep it’s half-cent sales tax and the $3 million of annual revenue that goes with it. Moreover, the city will keep it’s cutting-edge land use principle that has guided policies for the past decade. That expansion will last until 2020. So far there have been two Measure J votes and both projects have overwhelmingly been rejected by the voters.
That has led some to question whether any project can be approved by the voters, even though there is a precedent of several projects including Wildhorse, Mace Ranch, and the commercial project Target that have all been non-Measure J but were passed by the voters. Despite this concern, organized opposition never emerged to the popular land use measure and it was clear when the polls closed and the absentee results were released that Measure R had passed overwhelming.
Don Saylor was uncontested in the 2nd Supervisorial District and received 3442 votes. The county did not report on the number of write-ins in that race, but his vote total appears to be quite low. It appears that 11,868 voted in the Measure Q race, we would expect that the second district has roughly half the people, that might suggest that Don Saylor received only 60% of the vote, despite running unopposed. We shall look into that.
In the only contested county race, for Public Guardian it was not much of a battle as long-time incumbent Cass Sylvia easily defeated her opponent, Elizabeth Barber by a 73.5% to 26.5% margin. Ms. Sylvia who has served since 1999 received 17,885 votes to 6464.
Stay tuned as the Vanguard has election analysis throughout the week.
—David M. Greenwald reporting
“The county did not report on the number of write-ins in that race, but his vote total appears to be quite low.”
In addition to the above,the fact that if Vergis did not win any precinct that makes up the 2nd Supervisorial district( in how many of these precincts did Vergis beat out Swanson?) with the strong endorsement of Vergis by Don Saylor suggests that those voters gave little weight to the judgement/recommendation of their future unopposed BOS representative candidate.
Vergis had the full weight of the establishment behind her, but it didn’t amount to much.
“Vergis had the full weight of the establishment behind her, but it didn’t amount to much.”
I agree, Brian. Let’s hope that this puts the final nail in the coffin to Davis’ evaporating small-town political culture with its entrenched small-town Establishment cliques arrogantly believing that they have a special entitlement to rule our city.
I don’t know, someone told me that Souza, Saylor, and Asmundson hung out at the Grad last night trying to get in good with Swanson after they backed Vergis.
Let’s hope the 1/2 cent sales tax renewal (Measure Q) tax revenues are spent where they are supposed to towards city services, but alas, I have my doubts…
Congratulations to Cass Sylvia, who has been an outstanding Public Guardian. And to her credit, she welcomed the challenge of the campaign – and was as gracious as always.
And thank goodness the election is over – I was getting as many as ten robo-calls a day via telephone, not to mention ten flyers a day in the mail…
“I don’t know, someone told me that Souza, Saylor, and Asmundson hung out at the Grad last night trying to get in good with Swanson after they backed Vergis.”
SOP for political types. We’ll have to watch carefully to see if Swanson and Krovoza can “resist their BLANDISHMENTS”(I love the sound and mouth-feel of that word, from the Cohen brothers'”O’Brother, Where Art Thou?”)
What is up with the precinct that Daniel Watts WON?
http://www.yoloelections.org/returns/235.html
He and Joe Krovoza are the only two that won precincts. No take home message, just wondering who makes up the precinct Watts won.
David,
Do you know if Freddie Oakley has announced how many Davis ballots are yet to be counted?* I’m not curious because I think the additional uncounted votes will change any outcomes. I just want to know because I’d like to know if this election had (relative to the total population of Davis) the lowest turnout in a city council race in the last 20 years, if not longer.
So far, only 19,386 votes were cast for the 5 total candidates. That’s 9,693 votes for each available seat. Contrast that with 1998, when 27,506 votes were cast for the 2 seats. Here is the number of votes/seat cast in Davis over the last 4 two-seat city council elections:
1998 – 13,753
2002 – 13,496
2006 – 13,765
2010 – 9,693
In presidential election years we vote for 3 members of the city council. Here is the number of votes/seat cast in Davis over the last 3 three-seat city council elections:
2000 – 16,094
2004 – 15,903
2008 – 12,361
It appears like the overall trend is declining; and that this year was especially bad. I’m not sure what to account for it. Maybe when Davis declares bankruptcy in 2016, voters will turn out.
*The as yet uncounted votes include, I believe, some mail-in ballots turned in on election day or very near it where the signatures still need to be verified; provisional votes from people who voted in the wrong precincts or whose names were mistakenly left off the voter rolls; and spoiled ballots which have to be hand-counted.
[i]”No take home message, just wondering who makes up the precinct Watts won.”[/i]
That precinct (#31) is in South Davis, south of Cowell Blvd over to Research Park Drive. It had VERY LOW turnout and it’s largely made up of students who live in the large apartment complexes/
[b]Precinct 31[/b]
Watts – 17
Vergis – 16
Krovoza – 14
Swanson – 13
Li – 11
Rich:
First, it looks like there was probably a good deal of bullet voting in the council election. Measure Q had 11,868, and I would guess not everyone voted for that either, which would put the number back near 12,000.
Just talked to Tom, and he estimated 2000 which would bump turnout to the high thirties. Not great that’s for sure.
Brian dropped a “someone told me …” rumor and davisite2 quoted it and weighed in with the opinion that this was SOP for political types.
It’s the same type of ugliness that Rochelle was subjected to during the campaign. The hypocrisy notwithstanding, I’m sure this is not the type of dialog that Joe and Rochelle want going forward.
Ishmael: I agree.
1. “someone told me…” ??? Seems that it would be easy to verify if they were there.
2. “trying to get in good with Swanson…””SOP for political types….” I believe it is standard practice to congratulate the winners on election night, regardless of where one stood during the campaign.
Could we dispense with the weird insinuations for a while now?
I’m surprised that Q wasn’t closer. I had the sense that there was enough disappointment with city budget that more would have voted against it. And Measure V appears to have passed in Woodland. With a more conservative voter population, I would have imagined that one to be in danger of failing. If there is “tea party” conservative anger at government, it didn’t materialize in any obvious way at a local level.
saylor and asmundson endorsed swanson, why wouldn’t they go to her party? just look at the endorsement list on her website, nearly everybody commonly denounced here as “establishment” “council majority” etc. endorsed her, as did many other the “prog” side of things. there’s a ton of overlap in all three candidates endorsement lists, if you bother to take the time and look.
winters passed its sales tax as well, by a pretty narrow margin. the teabagger thing is seriously oversold.
[i]”saylor and asmundson endorsed swanson”[/i]
Top be fair, Saylor endorsed everyone.
“Saylor endorsed everyone. “
Nominally. As Greenwald pointed out, they only appeared to lift fingers for Vergis however.
“…might suggest that Don Saylor received only 60% of the vote, despite running unopposed…”
I rarely bother to vote in uncontested races. Don Saylor got a somewhat lower percentage of the possible vote in his supervisorial district (26.3%) than Matt Rexroad got in his (29.8%). But we’re only talking about a difference of a few hundred votes. I don’t think the drop-off in down-ticket races is particularly significant.
“It’s the same type of ugliness….”
What “ulginess”. I thought that I was making the observation that constant voter vigilance will be prudent. I do not believe that anyone really believes that the loss of Council Majority control, by those who held sway for the past decade, will now simply be accepted without doing everything in their power to regain control.
Don Shor says: “I rarely bother to vote in uncontested races.”
I,on the other hand, always make it a point to vote for unopposed candidates to demonstrate my support as well as making it a point NOT to vote for those unopposed who I do not support. This would not hold for unopposed candidates about whom I know almost nothing. Don Saylor certainly is not an unknown quantity to the 2nd District voters.
[i]”I,on the other hand, always make it a point to vote for unopposed candidates to demonstrate my support as well as making it a point NOT to vote for those unopposed who I do not support.”[/i]
I don’t think that is the usual pattern. I think people who vote for unopposed candidates, who are normally incumbents, vote for all of the unopposed candidates on their ballot. And people who leave one of those races blank tend to leave every one of those races blank.
The result is that every one of these incumbents will end up with almost the exact same vote total. To wit:
Newens – 22039
Butler – 22136
Oakley – 22903
Reisig – 22390
Prieto – 22613
Newens and Butler got a few less votes, I think, only because their names, faces and positions are much less familiar than the others. So a few more people left those ballots blank.
One more note …. If Don Saylor would have had a strong opponent in his race, he probably would have had a somewhat lower vote total. However, the total number of votes cast in his supervisorial race would have gone up. To wit, look at the higher vote total in the one (kind of) contested county department head election, Public Guardian:
Total – 24349
Sylvia – 17885
Barber – 6464
P.S. I just discovered something extremely important: The last name of every elected department head in Yolo County has 6 letters. Even Elizabeth Barber, who challenged Cass Sylvia, has 6 letters in her last name. –Rifkin
Reisig – 22390
Prieto – 22613
Oakley- 22903
Based upon my understanding of how Reisig is perceived by many Davis voter as well as the issues that have been aired about the sheriff “culture” under Prieto, I do not believe that 2nd District DAVIS voters would have given their vote to unopposed Reisig and Prieto is almost equal numbers as they did for Oakley, who is liked and well-respected in Davis.
“the teabagger thing is seriously oversold.”
I don’t think there are many “Tea Party” members in Davis.
Ask Nevada and South Carolina how oversold it is.
You’re going to see first hand come Nov. when conservatives rule the day.
[i]”Ask Nevada and South Carolina how oversold it is.”[/i]
There is a great political story out of SC today: [quote]Alvin Greene, a 32-year-old unemployed military veteran who lives with his parents, defeated Vic Rawl on Tuesday for the Democratic Senate nomination despite having run essentially no public campaign — no events, no signs, no debates, no website, no fundraising.[/quote] It appears that Republican operatives paid the $10,400 filing fee for Mr. Greene, who is now facing criminal charges for “showing obscene photos to a South Carolina college student and suggesting they go to her dorm room.”
Apparently, black voters made up most of the voters in the Democratic primary, and they prefered Greene, who is black and seems to have no other qualifications, over Rawl, who is white and is a former state legislator, attorney and prosecutor “who raised $186,000 and ran ads.”
Rawl would have lost to incumbent Republican Jim DeMint in November, anyhow. But Greene, who very likely will be in prison this fall, is seen a coup for the Republican tricksters who (illegally) got him on the ballot.
“Apparently, black voters made up most of the voters in the Democratic primary, and they prefered Greene, who is black and seems to have no other qualifications, over Rawl, who is white and is a former state legislator, attorney and prosecutor “who raised $186,000 and ran ads.”
Sounds like the Democrats were their own worst enemy.
wu ming says: “the teabagger thing is seriously oversold. “
wu ming, did you know that the term “teabagger” is a sexual slur?
I believe it is beneath the level of discussion that the Vanguard aims for. Am I correct David? Don?
As for the election results, my understanding of the motivation of the tea party demonstrators is that their overriding concern is the rampant fiscal irresponsibility that they see in both parties. From this view, with two new council members advocating fiscal restraint, and not beholden to unions, and with a renewal of a tax whose failure would have led to immediate deficits, I see the results in Davis as a good day for the goals of the tea party.
J.R.: yes it is a graphic term, though I doubt if most people knew that until this year. Folks, please use the term “tea party movement” or “tea-partiers” in the future.
As for the election results, my understanding of the motivation of the tea party demonstrators is that their overriding concern is the rampant fiscal irresponsibility that they see in both parties.
Here’s Hudson Sangree’s Sac Bee article on the Yolo County tax measure approvals. First sentence of the article:
“It wasn’t any tea party.”
[url]http://www.sacbee.com/2010/06/10/2811850/yolo-county-residents-approve.html[/url]
Whatever the “tea party movement” is supposed to mean, authentically, to me it looks like some sort of movement co-opted by a small-government libertarian element of the Republican Party that would be inclined to oppose tax increases. And that was the element that opposed Measure Q in Davis and Measure V in Woodland.
As for the term “tea bagger”, some tea party affiliates brought that term on themselves by waving tea bags around as a symbol of the movement.
“As for the term “tea bagger”, some tea party affiliates brought that term on themselves by waving tea bags around as a symbol of the movement.”
Ummmm no. That term is a derogatory sexual term that I first heard brought up by Janeane Garofola on an MSNBC interview. Nice try though.
Um, no. There is no question that the term “tea bag” was first used by the activists themselves. The domain http://teabagcongress.com/ was registered in February 2009. It has been acknowledged by conservatives that the term was first used by those who advocated sending tea bags to Congress as a protest action. As Jon Stewart said, you might want to Google a term with your adult filter off before you adopt it. Janeane Garofalo used the term in a controversial interview in April 2009.
Pictures from a Feb. 2009 tea party event: http://washingtonindependent.com/31868/scenes-from-the-new-american-tea-party
But it has become derogatory, and the history doesn’t really matter in terms of current usage.
It’s hard to imagine that tea party activists were a factor in the Davis council race.
I Wrote In a Candidate for BOS
A blank on an unopposed elected seat is not always seen as a NO.
I wanted Saylor to know for sure I voted NO on him. I have no use for Saylor, Auntie Ruth or the Pool Guy.