MADERA – After last night’s primary only one thing is certain, David Rogers will be returning to the Madera County Board of Supervisors for a third term in District 2. The Madera County Supervisors race up the mountain in District 5 between Tom Wheeler and Marc Sobel is too close to call with Wheeler barely over the 50% threshold.
In the Madera County District Attorney race Sally Moreno took an early lead over Paul Hornick, but neither candidate secured over 50% so this race looks like it will head to the General Election in November. In the only judicial race being contested last night in Madera County local attorney Brian Austin looks to have beaten his opponent Carol Moses by the slimmest of margins.
According to Madera County Clerk Rebecca Martinez there are still hundreds of provisional ballots to be counted and several more days for ballots yesterday’s postmark to be delivered via U.S. Mail to the county which could swing these three close races. With all these ballots still outstanding anything can happen and we may not know the winners until the County Clerk certifies the election in 30 days.
Local Attorney Brian Austin, who over the years has ran for Madera County Superior Court Judge three other times, took an early lead in the county vote last night and held on to his slim lead. At the end of the night Austin garnered 50.58% of the vote over Oakhurst attorney Carol Moses who received 49.24%. Only 229 votes separate the two attorneys’. This race is too close to call.
Madera County Supervisor Tom Wheeler faced a real challenger this year in Marc Sobel. While Wheeler maintained a 3 to 5 percent lead most of the night, he was not able to break the 50% mark until the end taking just 50.64% of the vote. Sobel trails the Supervisor by just 358 votes and only needs to secure enough of those uncounted ballots to keep Wheeler under 50%. If he is successful, this race will go to a November runoff. A third candidate Nokomis Hernandez received 3.55% of the vote.
Madera County District Attorney David Linn said he was going to be the one to select the next district attorney for the county and he might be right. While the embattled incumbent District Attorney never held a lead all night he did secure 22.29% of the vote which was enough to spoil an outright vicotry for Fresno County Deputy District Attorney Sally Moreno who took 44.34% of the ballots. Madera County Deputy District Attorney Paul Hornick scored 33.29% which was enough to send him to a runoff against Moreno in November. Now both candidates wait to see who will get the blessing of DA Linn for the General Election which might or might not give either of them an advantage.
Now for one of the nastiest elections in Madera County history the race for Supervisor District 2, David Rogers took an early lead and walked away with a third term on the board. While Rogers has been called on the carpet for his role in the Red Rock Waste Contract scandal, it was Al Galvez who was the victim of racist phone calls, emails and Facebook postings by Rogers’ Chowchilla supporters.
Mr. Galvez told of a house he visited in Chowchilla while walking precincts. “I was introducing myself to a lady and handed her my campaign literature. She told me she didn’t know why I was giving that to her since she didn’t read Mexican.” The handout was obviously written in English.
Phone bank volunteers reported multiple responses from Rogers Chowchilla supporters of “I’m not voting for a Mexican”. This blatant racism should be an embarrassment to the city of Chowchilla. Al Galvez has had a very successful career and in his retirement has been a great asset to the Madera Unified School District. This was a huge loss to the county of Madera.
Rogers, who is currently under a district attorney investigation that has been turned over to the California Attorney General, scored 65.8% of the vote for the evening with Galvez taking 33.93%.
In State and Congressional races, Madera County Supervisor Robert Poythress has an uphill battle heading to the General Election against Anna Caballero for the State Senate 12 spot and Jim Costa has a real challenger for his Congressional seat in newcomer Elizabeth Heng.
The Madera County Elections Department started working this morning on getting final numbers on all these close races. Any ballot that was received without a signature, those voters have ten days to clear that up before they are counted or tossed and any ballots that is still in the mail with a postmark of June 5, 2018 will be counted when they arrive at the Government Center. As well, any provisional ballots issued at the polling centers still need to be counted. It maybe a couple weeks until these close races are decided.
The General Election is November 6th 2018.
