MADERA – Madera County Sheriff Tyson Pogue had an early and decisive victory overr former Chowchilla Police Sergeant Ruben Mendoza Tuesday night. When the first ballots were counted a little after the poolsclosed at 8 pm, Pogue was already over 50 points ahead of his opponent, a member of the Madera Unified School District board of trustees. By the end of the night, Pogue scored more than 80% of the total votes counted Tuesday.
Katherine Rigby defeated her opponent in another early run-away to replace her father as a Madera County Superior Court Judge. Alaina Ybarra, who Madera City Mayor Santos Garcia backed, could not break the 30% threshold votes counted Tuesday evening. Rigby’s father, Mitch, retired earlier this year from the bench. She is currently employed as a prosecutor for the Fresno County District Attorney’s Office in Fresno.
In one of the tightest races of the evening, Brett Frazier is barely holding on to a two-point lead over his opponent Jorge Torres for the office of Madera County Assessor. Frazier is the two-time sitting Madera County Supervisor for District 1, while Torres works in the Madera County Assessors office. Only 328 votes separate both men in a race that will not be decided for two weeks.
Madera County Supervisor David Rogers squeaked by with a probable win by securing a little over 51% of the 2222 votes counted Tuesday night. He faced a serious challenge from Madera realtor Tim Farrell who secured nearly 26% of the vote. These percentages could change over the canvasing process of the vote as there are still hundreds of ballots yet to be counted. Chowchilla City Councilman John Chavez trailed in the polls with only 512 votes for third place.
Madera County will see two new members on the Board of Supervisors in January, but we will have to wait until November to find out who they will be. In the race to replace Supervisor Brett Frazier, Golden Valley School Board member Andy Wheeler was the top vote-getter with a little over 37% of the vote, followed by former Fresno City Police Officer Jordan Wamhoff, who walked away with 34.56% of the vote. In a distant third place was Michelle Stephens with a little more than 28%. For Wheeler to have won this race outright, he needed to secure 50% plus one vote.
In what turned out to be one of the nastiest elections in Madera County history, chief of staff to current district 5 supervisor Tom Wheeler, Robert Macaulay, scored a little more than 47% of the vote over Hollywood want-to-be and newcomer to the Central Valley, Mark Reed. He squeaked by with only 40%. Spoiler in this race was Raymond Cattleman Edward Beau Campbell, who took a little more than 12%, keeping either of the other two candidates from declaring victory.
This race has severely divided the once tranquil Eastern Madera County. Reed was featured in local media over the last two weeks when he attacked five mountain area women in a pollical mailer for everything from being gay to a witch and even a Democrat. He also blasted his opponent Campbell, a black man, for supporting the Black Lives Matter movement. Reed has told the local Republican party that he has secured Campbell’s endorsement for the November election. Campbell on the other hand stated in an email to Macaulay Wednesday morning, "I will encourage all of the peopole behind me to get behind you for the good of our community."
In the federal Congressional race, east-coast transplant David Giglio was trounced by a pack of seasoned politicians, only scoring 14% of the vote. The two winners in that race who will face off in November are Democrat Adam Gray (33.3%) out of Merced and Republican John Duarte (30.5%). In the 27th Assembly District, Fresno City Councilwoman Esmeralda Soria (42%) neutered fellow councilman Mike Karbassi (9.6%). Soria, a professor at Fresno City College, will face former Merced County Sheriff Mark Pazin (33.2%) on November 8th in the states General Election.
Madera County Clerk Rebecca Martinez reminds us that these numbers are not official and will be changing come Friday when her office releases updated numbers. It will take the county 30 days to canvas the election and certify the vote before officially deciding any race.
