In perhaps the most memorable Presidential Election year in history, voters in Morro Bay chose to stick with their 2-term Mayor giving him a third 2-year term, and picked two new city council members who are cut from the same political cloth.
In Los Osos the voters gave another term to the Community Services District’s board president and picked a community volunteer to fill an empty seat.
Overall, in SLO County there were 168,257 registered voters and 95,560 actually voted, for a 56.79% turn out. And as we’ve seen in previous elections, turnout in Morro Bay was higher than the County as a whole. Of the 7,352 registered voters, 4,670 cast a ballot. That’s a 63.5% turnout.
Here are the election results for the North Coast communities of Los Osos, Cayucos, Morro Bay, Cambria and San Simeon, including seats on CSD and school district boards.
The totals are as of Wednesday, Nov. 9 as tabulated by San Luis Obispo County Elections Office. And while not yet “official,” (the election isn’t official until the Board of Supervisors certifies it, likely a few weeks from now), they do include all the mail-in ballots, and all the votes cast at precincts on Election Day, Tuesday, No. 8.
Morro Bay Mayor — 2-year term:
Jamie Irons — 1,845 (41.54%)
Tina Metzger — 1,627 (36.64%)
Betty Winholtz — 953 (21.46%)
Write In —16 (0.86%)
Morro Bay City Council — 4-year term, top 2:
Marlys McPherson — 2,251 (32.64%)
Robert Davis — 2,085 (30.32%)
Richard Sadowski — 1,551 (22.49%)
Laura Cogan — 950 (13.78%)
Write-in votes — 59 (0.86%)
Los Osos CSD Board — 4-years, top 2:
Marshal Ochylski — 3,172 (43.45%)
Vicki Miledge — 2,196 (23.85%)
Steve Best — 1,703 (18.50%)
Julie Tacker — 1,410 (15.31%)
Tim Staggers — 670 (7.28%)
Coast Unified School District Board — 4-years, top 3:
Tiffany Silva — 2,044 (24.69%)
Dennis Rightmer — 2,031 (24.54%)
Samuel Shalhoub — 1757 (21.23%)
Eileen Roach — 12,270 (14.82%)
Eric Endersby — 1,146 (13.85%)
Coast Unified School District Board — 2-years, top one:
Lee McFarland — 1,695 (47.09%)
Elizabeth Weatherly — 1,535 (47.09%)
Cayucos Elementary School District Board — top 2:
Val Wright — 651 (37.22%)
Susan Brownell — 446 (25.50%)
Sherry Peckhoon Sim — 320 (18.30%)
Steve Geil — 320 (18.30%)
Cayucos Fire District Director — top 2:
Steve Beightler — 748 (42.84%)
Cheryl Conway — 468 (26.80%)
Christopher Pope — 415 (23.77%)
San Simeon CSD — 4-year term, top three:
Alan Fields — 63 (30.29%)
Mary McGuire — 50 (24.04%)
Daniel Williams — 50 (24.04%)
Leroy Price — 45 (21.63%)
Cambria Health Care District — top 2:
Barbara Bronson Gray — 1,759 (37.09%)
Shirley Bianchi — 1,651 (34.82%)
Krista Jenkins — 820 (17.29%)
Jerry Scott Wood — 500 (10.54%)
Cambria CSD Board — top 3:
Amanda Rice — 1,319 (19.16%)
Greg Sanders (1,244 (18.07%)
Gail Robinette — 1,244 (16.19%)
Harry Farmer — 1,101 (15.99%)
Dewayne Lee — 924 (13.42%)
R. Thomas Kirkey — 805 (11.69%)
Jeff Waters — 288 (4.18%)
It appears that Measure J, the County’s attempt to increase the local sales tax by a half percent to provide millions for road repairs, has been defeated by the slimmest of margins. Measure J needed two-thirds approval (66%) to pass and finished with an even 65%, a closeness that could turn with the final count.
Measure J — sales tax hike:
Yes — 58,066 (65%)
No — 31.260 (35%)
And in a most contentious congressional race, it appears the Democrat, Salud Carbajal, has won a decisive 16,000-vote victory over Republican Justin Fareed. Dist. 24 encompasses all of SLO and Santa Barbara Counties and a slice of Northern Ventura County.
24th District House of Representatives:
Salud Carbajal — 45,328 (49.23%); S.B. County — 67,210; Ventura County — 1,732 = 114,270 total
Justin Fareed — 46,753 (50.77%); S.B.C. — 50,290; Ventura — 1,171 = 98,214 total votes
Like the local congressional seat, the 35th District State Assembly seat includes all of SLO County but just the northern part of Santa Barbara County.
35th State Assembly District:
Jordan Cunningham — SLO County — 49,222 (54%); SB County —22,499 = 71,721 total
Dawn Ortiz-Legg — SLO County — 42,002 (46%); SB County — 17,719 = 59,721 total
And back in SLO County, a controversial incumbent won another term representing Pismo/SLO, and a longtime conservative political operative won in the North County.
Dist. 3 Supervisor, Adam Hill, handily won a third, 4-year term, besting SLO City Councilman, Dan Carpenter in what ended up being a very contentious battle carried out mostly online. John Peschong, who has been a political consultant on the national, state and local levels, also beat Steve Martin handily for the Dist. 1 seat.
Dist. 1 SLO County Supervisor — 4-years:
John Peschong — 9,164 (55.51%)
Steven Martin — 7,330 (44.40%)
Dist. 3 SLO Supervisor — 4-years:
Adam Hill — 10,224 (57.43%)
Dan Carpenter — 7,533 (42.31%)
And with a ballot stuffed this year with statewide propositions, the two most watched and perhaps most interesting to SLO County voters were the push to legalize marijuana for recreational uses and a statewide ban on single use plastic shopping bags (SLO County already has a countywide ban). The local results were similar to those statewide.
Prop. 64 — Legalize Marijuana (Statewide initiative):
Yes — 52,533 (56.65%)
No — 40194 (43.35%)
Prop. 67 — Ban on Plastic Bags (Statewide initiative):
Yes — 54,050 (54.41%)
No — 36,927 (40.59%)
In the Presidential race, Democrat nominee Hillary Clinton and running mate Tim Kaine carried SLO County with 46,965 votes (49.97%) with Republicans Donald Trump and Mike Pence — who won the nationwide vote and are now President-Elect and Vice President-Elect — got 39,263 votes (41.78%).
SLO County voters also went overwhelmingly for U.S. Senate candidate, Kamala Harris, the frontrunner and current California Attorney General, over long-time Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez. Harris got 48,941 votes (66.25%) to Sanchez’ 24,937 (33.75%). Harris easily won the seat in statewide voting, too .
Gov. Jerry Brown will now have the rare opportunity to appoint a new attorney general to fill out the remaining 2 years of Harris’ term.
Once County Supervisors certify the election, and local city clerks do likewise, the winners will be sworn in, most likely in early December.
