Little Local Competition as Sonoma County Voters Cast Their Ballot

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SANTA ROSA — With many local races featuring little to no competition, Sonoma County voters went to the polls Tuesday to cast their ballot for a handful of local races as well as the statewide slate of candidates and propositions.  As the first wave of absentee ballots were released a little after 8:30, the distinct possibility emerged that no local races would head to a November runoff.  Even a hotly contested race for Sonoma County Sheriff to not be as close as some forecast.  “With that few a set of candidates, including a well-known Santa Rosa politician, it is very unusual” said Sonoma State Political Scientist & KSRO Political Analyst David McCuan of the lack of competition, “it’s a statement by voters to progressives and those outside critics of the Sheriff’s office to get their act together.  There was a real opportunity to challenge in a runoff and that looks to be squandered.”

Nationally, Congressman Mike Thompson and Jared Huffman safely glided to re-election garnering over three-quarters of the vote.  State incumbents Mike McGuire, Jim Wood, Cecilia Aguiar-Curry, and Marc Levine also easily won their respective re-elections.  Incumbent County Supervisor’s David Rabbitt and James Gore faced no competition in they bids for re-election.  The local contested races also have the potential of being wrapped up before the November election with Deva Marie Proto garnering 63.4% of the current tally to Ray Leonard’s 27.7% and Sheriff’s Captain Mark Essick getting 60% of the vote to the 21.9% and 17.7% of outsider candidates John Mutz and Ernesto Olivares respectively. A potentially surprising result was the early strong showing from Regional Measure 3, raising Bay Area tolls over the next several years to fund transportation projects, including many in Sonoma County.  Overnight results had the measure leading 54.8% in favor to 45.2% opposing.  District Attorney Jill Ravtich also easily rolled to re-election following her only challenger, local Attorney Scott Murray, dropped out of the race.

Sonoma County followed closely to the state results for many of the offices with 56% supporting Gavin Newsom for Governor with 17% supporting Republican John Cox.  Eleni Kounalakis took 35.5% of the vote for Lt. Governor, Alex Padilla lead with 61% of the vote in Sonoma County for Secretary of State, Betty Yee garnered 73% of Sonoma County’s vote for Controller, Fiona Ma taking 55% of the vote for Treasurer, Xavier Becerra with 59.8% for Attorney General, Ricardo Lara leading with 42.7% of Sonoma County’s vote for Insurance Commissioner, and Dianne Feinstein taking 55.8%.

Sonoma County Registrar of Voters Bill Rousseau expected Sonoma County turnout to come in at around 50%, coming in higher than the expected state turnout.