Election: SMART, Cook reflect on campaigns and their future

Ballots are still being counted from the March 3 primary election, but most campaigns have largely been decided, with a few surprises mixed in with the expected results.

One county supervisor may have lost her seat, two others look like they’ve been re-elected; a controversial sales tax renewal for the SMART train has lost, while another sales tax for wildfire prevention remains below the two-thirds approval threshold necessary for passage.

But the results announced on Wednesday reflect only the votes cast at the 175 polling stations in Sonoma County and the vote-by-mail ballots received prior to Feb. 28 – about 25 percent of the total vote-by-mail ballots distributed, which the county registrar said was about 280,000.

That means that as many as 210,000 ballots have yet to be counted, a proportion more than enough to change the results on many races.

“We have until March 31 to certify our results,” said Chief Deputy Registrar Wendy Hudson. “We are right now doing an inventory, it’s going to take us some time.” Ballots that are received in the mail by the registrar by Friday, March 6 will also be counted.

So final numbers in all Sonoma County election contests are not yet complete, let alone certified. “We’re not even close,” said an aide in the registrar’s office, who added that the registrar’s office will start updating the results as soon as next week.

As it currently stands, 1st District Supervisor Susan Gorin won a third term in her two-person race against Sonoma City Councilmember David Cook, as did 5th District Supervisor Lynda Hopkins against her challenger.

“Thank you to the voters of the 1st district for my strong re-election results yesterday,” wrote Gorin on her Facebook page Wednesday. “Now on to the important work of the district and county.”

Cook, in the last year of his second term on the Sonoma City Council, was buoyant when reached by phone the morning after the election. “I woke up in a good mood, and called Susan to congratulate her,” he told the Index-Tribune. He added that he and Gorin discussed a project they can work on together in the coming months, but did not elaborate on what that entailed.

Cook expressed some disappointment in the voter turn-out, however, which was about 22,000 in the 1st District. “My path to victory was 30,000,” said Cook. “But that’s politics: you do the best job that you can and stick with the message that you’re giving. If it doesn’t work out, that’s what will be.”

Throughout the campaign Cook emphasized his support for term limits, and his second council term is over at the end of 2020. Although he will not be running again for city council, he’s confident that he will try again for the supervisor seat. “I will be running again, definitely,” said Cook. “I’m 53 years old and doing community service is what I want to do.”

In Sonoma Valley, Cook’s strongest showings were in the precinct south and east of Sonoma in the Schellville area, several small precincts in north Sonoma, and in several precincts around Oakmont and Los Alamos Road in east Santa Rosa.

Gorin’s 58 percent was greater than the 54 percent she won with in the 2016 primary, when she faced two opponents, Gina Cuclis (35 precent) and Keith Rhinehard (10 percent).

But 3rd District Supervisor Shirlee Zane may not have been able to convince her constituents to return her to office for a fourth term, as initial results showed former newspaper reporter Chris Coursey winning the seat handily. While the current vote difference – Zane has 46 percent, Coursey 54 – could be overturned by a substantial pro-Zane result in the final vote-by-mail numbers, the supervisor conceded on Wednesday.

The other supervisor up for re-election, Lynda Hopkins in the 5th District, easily defeated challenger Michael Hilber, 80 percent to 20 percent.

Sonoma re-elected their representatives at both the national level and the state. Rep. Mike Thompson was re-elected by a 70 percent vote, his nearest competition coming from Republican Scott Giblin with 23 percent.

State Senator Bill Dodd was unopposed for his District 3 seat.

Assemblymember Ceclia Aguiar-Curry, whose 4th Assembly District includes the unincorporated Sonoma Valley, got 55 percent compared to her Republican rival, Matthew Nelson, with 35 percent. Assemblyman Marc Levine, whose 10th District includes the City of Sonoma, got 60 percent to win re-election, while Republican Ron Sondergaard received 21 percent.

But two high-profile ballot measures failed to pass. Measure I, to renew the quarter-cent sales tax to support Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit (SMART) for another 30 years, fell far short of the required two-thirds vote needed for passage, failing even to get a majority in Sonoma County (though the two-county measure earned 54 percent approval in Marin).

“It’s certainly not where we would have liked to be at this point, but SMART is resilient and always has been,” said Eric Lucan, chairman of the SMART board of directors. “We’ve faced opposition, a repeal effort, and a previous loss at the polls. But SMART always bounces back and I’m confident we will again, and gain the support of voters to get the two-thirds vote we need.”

In its two previous elections, 2006 and 2008, SMART enjoyed higher support in Sonoma County than in Marin - but not this time.

“Yes, we’re a little surprised by that,” said Lucan. “I’m very curious to see once the tallies are all in, I think the numbers out there aren’t giving the whole picture.” He declined to speculate on what if any changes in service the measure’s defeat would bring.

Measure G, the county-wide wildfire prevention sales tax of a half-cent, also failed to make the two-third threshold, and while it earned almost 62 percent of the vote that wasn’t enough to pass the measure. The tax would have generated about $1 million a year for county fire agencies to increase their preparedness to combat the ongoing threat of wildfires.

Steve Akre, chief of the Sonoma Valley Fire & Rescue, said had the measure passed, “Approximately $4.4 million would have come to Sonoma Valley Fire Agencies (Sonoma Valley, Kenwood and Schell-Vista).”

But with its apparent failure to garner the necessary two-thirds majority, he said, “Our response will not be what it could have been or needs to be, which was a more effective and safer response.”

Akre said that although there were no immediate changes planned to personnel in the agencies, they need to wait until all all the ballots are counted and the election certified. “Then we will be able to evaluate and consider options.”

Contact christian.kallen@sonomanews.com.