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Koenig Ousts Supervisor Leopold: Trujillo, Hernandez To Join Cabrillo
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COMMUNITY NEWS Koenig Ousts Supervisor Leopold Trujillo, Hernandez To Join Cabrillo Board
By Jondi Gumz
Votes are still being counted from the Nov. 3 election, but it’s clear some voters in Santa Cruz County were looking for change.
Challenger Manu Koenig, who supports turning the Santa Cruz rail corridor into a pathway for people on bikes and on foot, got 57 percent of the vote to upset threeterm incumbent John Leopold in the First District county supervisor race to represent Live Oak, Soquel and the Summit.
Manu Koenig With 31,000 votes cast in the supervisor race, Koenig has seen his margin grow to 4,300 more votes than Leopold.
Leopold posted on social media saying, “Although I wanted a different result, I accept the will of the voters.”
He offered his assistance to Koenig in the transition and said he would look for new ways to contribute to the community.
Koenig posted on social media that he was honored to get that call. He supported legalizing tiny homes, streamlining permitting, a one-to-one needle exchange, and wildfire alert devices on cell towers.
He said his campaign was inclusive, and his team included people from ages 19 to 90, from all parties, all races and ethnicities.
“I’m ready to work to implement the changes we need,” he concluded.
Running for the Cabrillo College governing board, Steven Laird Trujillo, an author and retired history teacher who wants the process to deliberate changing the college name to be more public and transparent, got 61 percent of the vote, unseating incumbent Edward K. Steven Trujillo Banks, who has been on the board since 2012.
Trujillo said he researched Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo in 1992 to write curriculum for a new college prep course at Alisal High School on Mexican-American history, contending he was a thief with a history of sexual conquests who should not be a role model.
Also running for the Cabrillo board, two-term Watsonville City Council member Felipe Hernandez got 63 percent of the vote to unseat incumbent Leticia Mendoza, executive director of the Watsonville YWCA, who sought a second term.
In a race for a seat on the Santa Cruz County Board Felipe Hernandez of Education, challenger Ed Acosta, an ag manager, got 76 percent of the vote, unseating incumbent Dana Sales, a real estate agent who has been on the board since 1992. Acosta filed a ballot statement and Sales did not.
In the San Lorenzo Valley Water District race for two seats, newcomers Gail Mahood, a retired geology professor with support from Democrats and Republicans, got 9,342 votes, followed by Tina Marie To, an environmental scientist, with 5,458. They unseated incumbent Lew Farris, a biotech manager appointed to the board, in third place with 3,837 and with newcomer Beth Thomas, a retired education director, finishing fourth with 3,685.
Hundreds of ballots remain to be reviewed, according to an update posted by County Clerk Gail Pellerin, the top election official in the county, on votescount.us
“The law gives us until Dec. 1 to certify the election,” .she wrote. “Our plan is to have most ballots in and counted before Thanksgiving.”
Provisional ballots must be researched. In some cases, the voter signature on the envelope does not compare to the signature on file so attempts are being made to contact those voters. Voters have until Nov. 29 to “cure” the signature.
The numbers in this report come from the update posted Nov. 12 at votescount.us but they are not final.
