Become part of the movement for unbiased, accessible election information. Donate today.
June 7 Election Review: Municipal elections in California
June 9, 2016
By Ballotpedia's Municipal government team
Seven of California's 17 largest cities by population held municipal primary elections on Tuesday, with a majority of mayoral and city council seats already decided without advancing to the November ballot. Candidates who won majorities in their primaries were able to avoid runoff elections, while the top two candidates in each primary where no candidate won a majority will face off on November 8, 2016. Twelve seats out of 27 seats (44.4 percent) up for election in these cities require runoffs in 2016. Stockton's city elections feature four of these seats, meaning that voters will hear debates about economic and public safety concerns through the fall. In San Diego, Kevin Faulconer won re-election with 58.2 percent of the vote against three opponents.
Stockton Mayor Anthony Silva first won election to the office only five months after the city entered bankruptcy in 2012. The city emerged from bankruptcy in February 2015, but Silva and the city council have clashed over budget issues throughout his tenure. Silva has also drawn criticism for the city's violent crime rates, which he highlighted as a campaign issue in 2012 but watched increase throughout his term. Silva faces council member Michael Tubbs in the November runoff with three city council races also heading to the runoff. The mayor also serves as a member of the Stockton City Council, meaning that a majority of council seats will be decided in 2016.
Chula Vista
November runoff in the cards for District 4 race
There was only one election in Chula Vista on Tuesday night, and no candidate in that race received enough votes to avoid a runoff election in November. Rudy Ramirez (30 percent) and Mike Diaz (27 percent) advanced past Eduardo Reyes (24 percent) and Emmanuel Soto (19 percent) for the District 4 seat. In the District 2 race, because there were only two candidates, the general election was pushed back to November 8. Both seats are open; i.e., neither district's incumbent is seeking re-election.
Fresno
City council races decided, mayoral runoff set after primary
The city of Fresno left the primary election with no mayor-elect, as Henry Perea and Lee Brand earned enough votes to compete in the November 8 runoff election. Perea led the field with 44 percent of the vote, followed by Brand at 32 percent. The other candidates in the primary election were H. Spees (18 percent), Doug Vagim (4 percent), and Richard Renteria (2 percent). The winner of the November election will replace Ashley Swearengin (R), who was term-limited and could not run for re-election.
Elsewhere across the city, three city council seats were up for election. Incumbents Steve Brandau (District 2) and Paul Caprioglio (District 4) won re-election unopposed. In District 6's open seat, Garry Bredefeld won the election outright by winning 50.35 percent of the vote. The other candidates in that race were Jeremy Pearce (25 percent), Holly Carter (20 percent), and Carter Pope II (5 percent).
Riverside
Mayor Bailey wins comfortably over five challengers
Incumbent Rusty Bailey will serve a second four-year term as mayor of Riverside, following a strong victory over five challengers. While one of those challengers was City Councilman Paul Davis, none of Bailey's opponents received more than 18 percent of the overall votes cast, according to unofficial election night results.
Bailey's challengers had questioned the viability of his proposed streetcar plan, a campaign point for Bailey in his first mayoral election. Additional questions over how the city should react if recreational marijuana is legalized by the state were also debated in this year's election.
Voters supported retaining Bailey, but they definitively rejected two ballot measures the city council had placed before them in this election. Measure A would have created an office of city prosecutor within the existing city attorney's office. It would have also charged both offices with the prosecution of misdemeanor offenses. Measure B would have increased the salary of city council members to 80 percent of the mayoral salary.
Sacramento
No upsets as Steinberg wins mayoral race and incumbents sweep the other city council seats
Earning more than 58 percent of the primary vote, former state Sen. Darrell Steinberg stood out in the field of eight candidates seeking to replace outgoing Mayor of Sacramento Kevin Johnson. This majority victory by Steinberg, as well as those secured by the four city council incumbents who were up for re-election, means no runoff election will be necessary for these city offices.
District 2 Councilman Allen Warren, District 4 Councilman Steve Hansen, and District 8 Councilman Larry Carr all defeated challengers to remain in office for four more years. District 6 incumbent Eric Guerra, meanwhile, faced no challengers and sailed to an unopposed victory.
San Diego
Incumbents keep their seats; two open council spots advance to runoff in November
Mayor Kevin Faulconer, District 5 Councilman Mark Kersey, and District 7 Councilman Scott Sherman won re-election to new four-year terms in the primary election for San Diego on June 7, 2016. While the open District 3 seat race was also determined in the primary by newcomer Christopher Ward's victory, the open races for District 1 and 9 advanced to a runoff election on November 8, 2016.
Barbara Bry and Ray Ellis advanced from the field of five candidates for the District 1 seat to the general election. Similarly, Ricardo Flores and Georgette Gomez advanced in the District 9 race.
The city's runoff election system, which has been in use since 1989, has recently seen criticism from a citizen group. While the June election was called a primary, it was functionally a general election. Only races where no candidate won a majority (50 percent plus one) of the votes cast in the primary advanced to the election on November 8, 2016. The November election was called a general election, but it was functionally a runoff.
Voters also approved all nine of the city's ballot measures that appeared on the primary ballot. This included a decisive approval for Proposition I, a measure approving the city council's 2014 minimum wage ordinance.
San Jose
Term-limited seats head to runoffs in November
Three of the five city council seats up for election in San Jose will require runoff elections on November 8, 2016, to determine their winners. District 4 incumbent Manh Nguyen and District 10 incumbent Johnny Khamis defeated one challenger each to secure new terms. The other three seats—Districts 2, 6, and 8—were only sought by newcomers as their sitting officeholders were unable to seek re-election due to term limits.
None of the newcomers running for those three seats secured a majority of the votes (50 percent plus one) cast in the primary. Steve Brown and Sergio Jimenez received the most votes in District 2, while Devora Davis and Helen Chapman topped the District 6 primary. Similarly, Jimmy Nguyen and Sylvia Arenas, currently an at-large member of the Evergreen Elementary School District Board of Trustees, will go head-to-head in the general election.
Stockton
Mayoral, city council races head to November runoffs
Stockton residents will head back to the polls in November 2016 to decide races for mayor and three city council seats after an inconclusive primary. Councilman Michael Tubbs (33.5 percent) and incumbent Mayor Anthony Silva (26 percent) will compete in the mayoral runoff. Tubbs and Silva bested six other candidates in a primary campaign defined by the city's economic fortunes and violent crime rates.
District 2 incumbent Daniel Wright and District 4 incumbent Michael Blower placed second in their respective primaries with opportunities to win votes before the runoff election. Steve Colangelo (41.9 percent) finished well ahead of Wright (27.5 percent), Dwight Williams (18.7 percent), and Waqar Rizvi (11.5 percent). Susan Lenz (46.4 percent) and Blower (37.9 percent) defeated Marcie Bayne (15.1 percent). In District 6, newcomers Sam Fant (37.6 percent) and Jesus Andrade (33.5 percent) defeated three candidates on their way to the runoff.
Ballot measures
Fracking:
Voters in Butte County approved Measure E, a citizen initiative designed to ban fracking and other "high-intensity" oil and gas extraction methods. County voters passed the measure by a margin of 71.5 percent to 28.5 percent.
Marijuana:
Eleven local medical marijuana-related ballot measures were on the California primary ballot in different cities and counties across the state. Some were veto referendums targeting cultivation restrictions imposed by county or city officials, others were citizen initiatives seeking to lift medical marijuana dispensary and home-growing regulations, and still others were put on the ballot by city councils to impose taxes on marijuana cultivation or sales.
A full list and details about results can be viewed here.
SF bay tax:
A first-of-its-kind, nine-county parcel tax to pay for restoration and preservation of the San Francisco Bay was put on the ballot by the San Francisco Bay Restoration Authority and was approved by just over 69 percent of voters across the nine affected counties. The measure needed a two-thirds (66.67%) vote for approval.
For information about all 148 local ballot measures decided on June 7, 2016, click here.
See also
- United States municipal elections, 2016
- Municipal elections in Chula Vista, California (2016)
- Municipal elections in Fresno, California (2016)
- Municipal elections in Riverside, California (2016)
- Municipal elections in Sacramento, California (2016)
- Municipal elections in San Diego, California (2016)
- Municipal elections in San Jose, California (2016)
- Municipal elections in Stockton, California (2016)
| |||||
