Well, it is almost over with, but this year's election is bringing some change to many parts of East County. With many new seats open, and Measures to vote for, there are some landslide victories and some that might still be up in the air for awhile, even with 100 percent of precincts accounted for.
Lemon Grove mayoral race is as tight as it gets with Racquel Vasquez leading George Gastil by 13 votes, which could result a recount. Newcomers David Arambula and Matt Mendoza took the two open City Council seats available.
Well, it is almost over with, but this year's election is bringing some change to many parts of East County. With many new seats open, and Measures to vote for, there are some landslide victories and some that might still be up in the air for awhile, even with 100 percent of precincts accounted for.
Lemon Grove mayoral race is as tight as it gets with Racquel Vasquez leading George Gastil by 13 votes, which could result a recount. Newcomers David Arambula and Matt Mendoza took the two open City Council seats available.
But the Lemon Grove community looks like it has taken the stand of repealing the band on marijuana dispensaries with a No vote on Measure V. La Mesa passed Measure U to regulate medical marijuana dispensaries with a simple majority. We will see how these work out with State Proposition 64, Adult Use of Marijuana Act passing with more than 10 percent of the vote.
La Mesa Councilmember Kristine Alessio kept her position while Colin Parent overtook Ruth Sterling by a wide enough margin to claim his place on the City Council.
In Santee, Councilmember John Minto won over Councilmember Rob McNelis by nearly 10 percent. This was a tough race to call and one interesting to watch. I do not believe that Santee could have made a bad choice either way, but the numbers are in and Minto will take over for Mayor Randy Voepel who won State Assembly 71st District by a landslide. New to Santee's City Council, Stephen Houlahan took the open seat for Santee City Council by an unbeatable margin.
Although the City of El Cajon kept Councilmember Bob McClellan, it looks like Steve Goble and Ben Kalasho took Councilmember Tony Ambrose's open seat and Councilmember Star Bales position. Kalasho and Bales are separated by less than two percent.
With all of the conflict with the Grossmont Union High School District, it now has fresh blood with Chris Fite taking the open seat and Elva Salinas topping incumbent Jim Stieringer with more than a four percent percentage. This might be a new beginning for GUHSD and in another two years this contentious board could be completely replaced. But that being said, the $128 million Bond Measure BB passed with flying colors. This is something to keep our eyes on as bond expenditures have been the highlight of this campaign with now more than $1 billion in bonds with this and the last two Measures approved.
Lakeside Union School District results overturned two incumbents Twila Godley and Keith Hildreth to the bottom of the polls with victories from Rhonda Taylor and and John Butz, but Butz is less than a percent ahead of Brian Stearns. This board has faced a lot of contention from both the classified and certified staff over classified negotiations and Superintendent Dr. David Lorden's large increase in legal representation spending. Something that many staff and people in the community are still asking, "Why?"
Assemblywoman Shirley Weber kept her seat in the State Assembly with a wide
margin, as well as Representatives Duncan Hunter and Susan Davis easily holding on in Congress.
So we have a lot of new faces in East County politics and through the course of changeover, we will get to know them better and find out what they have in mind for their East County constituents. There are some interesting things to talk about locally and how some State Propositions will affect our various communities.
