By Roger Riffenburgh
With election results only days away from certification, it is clear that Republicans won local government races across the San Francisco and Monterey Bay Areas. One particular bright spot is Morgan Hill, where incumbent Mayor Mark Turner ran a reelection campaign with broad bipartisan support and won a 58% victory. In addition, Soraida Iwanaga won a city council seat. Along with current councilmember Marilyn Librers, Republicans will have a majority on the new council.
Two Republicans, Craig Eicher and Matt Gaidos, won seats on the Pleasanton city council. Also in Alameda County, Cindy Rocha won for San Leandro Unified School District, and Deena Kaplanis won for Livermore Valley USD. And of course the big victories in Alameda County were the successful recall by wide margins of both progressive Alameda County District Attorney Pam Price and Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao.
There was a lot of success in Monterey County as Mary Ann Carbone was reelected Sand City Mayor while in Gonzales Jose L Rios was reelected Mayor, and Scott Funk was reelected to the council. Mike Burger was elected to the Del Rey Oaks city council, and Marcy Jones was elected to the Greenfield council. Mindy Hunt and Jake Odello were elected to school boards. Wayne Holman, Stacey Fritz-Smith, Maria Schell, and Rosemary Guidotti were elected to various fire, water, and healthcare districts.
In Contra Costa County, two GOP candidates won city council seats: Faye Maloney in Brentwood and Renee Morgan in Danville. In Clayton Jim Diaz leads by 13 votes as of this writing. Carolyn Graham was reelected to the Discovery Bay Community Services District board. Contra Costa’s most prominent Republican officeholder, Supervisor Candace Andersen, got an early start and won her fourth term unopposed in the March primary. In Solano County GOP Chair and Vacaville Unified Trustee Michele Guerra, Dixon Mayor Steve Bird, and County Board of Ed member Amy Sharp all won reelection.
In Santa Cruz County Donna Lind and Steve Clark both won election to the Scotts Valley Council. Ron Whittle won a seat on the Scotts Valley Fire District board. In San Mateo County Nadia Flamenco was the top vote-getter for the Jefferson Elementary School District in the Daly City area. Former county chair Christina Laskowski won election to the San Mateo-Foster City School Board but tragically passed away.
Other victors in Santa Clara County include Terry Hines for Campbell City Council and Terence Fugazzi for Gilroy Council. The following won school district trustee races: Nicole Gribstad in San Jose Unified, Otila Salazar Torres in Oak Grove SD, and Karl Jacobson in Orchard Elementary. John Zoglin won reelection to the El Camino Healthcare Board.
All candidates, win or lose, deserve a big thank you for entering the arena to bring Republican ideals to improve their community.