Election Results – Progressives Wins in Berkeley

Arreguín Elected Mayor; Bartlett, Hahn, CALI Slate Win

While thousands of vote by mail ballots remain to be counted, it is clear that Jesse Arreguín has been elected mayor of Berkeley by large margin. His convincing 47% to 34% margin over District 5 council member Laurie Capitelli is too large to be affected by counting of additional ballots.

Similarly, Sophie Hahn has a commanding lead over Capitelli-endorsed Stephen Murphy for the District 5 Council seat and Ben Bartlett has a very solid lead in District 3 over Mark Coplan and Deborah Mathews who are running neck and neck for second place.

This is the biggest progressive electoral victory in many years. There will be a special election for Jesse Arreguín’s District 4 Council seat. If a progressive wins, Jesse will have four allies on the Council and may have a fifth depending on the outcome in District 2. It’s too bad that this comes with a disastrous presidential election result.

District 2: It ain’t over – still a tight race: In District 2, the initial ranked choice count gives Cheryl Davila a narrow 42 vote lead over incumbent council member Darryl Moore. It’s 1838 to 1796, or 50.6% to 49.4%. Darryl had 40% of the first choice votes. Nanci Armstrong-Temple is finishing third so far with 1116 votes, only 82 votes behind Cheryl Davila. When Nanci’s votes were apportioned, 640 went to Davila and 245 to Moore (231 did not make a second choice). As counting continues, Moore could regain the lead; it’s also possible that Armstrong-Temple could overtake Davila for second place, in which case Davila’s second choice votes would be apportioned.

CALI slate sweeps Rent Board: The gap between Igor Tregub, now in fourth place and Judy Hunt, the landlord-backed incumbent, who was the only elected official in Berkeley to opposed affordable housing measure U1, is over 2,500 votes, large enough to ensure victory for Tregub even with thousands of vote by mail and provisional ballots to be counted.

Measure U1, aka the Landlord Tax, has won easily despite the BPOA’s $800,000+ campaign against it. It currently has 74.1% of the vote.

See below for more details on the Candidate results and local measures. All counts are as of 1:40 a.m. November 9. The next update will be Friday at 4:30pm. The County will continue updating over the next week or so until all ballots are counted. Check here for more:  http://www.acgov.org/rov/current_election/230/index.htm

Candidate Results Details

9th State Senate District: Nancy Skinner is way ahead of Sandre Swanson in the Alameda County portion of the district, 60.6% to 39.4%; it’s 63-37 in the district as a whole.

Berkeley School Board: the two incumbents, Judy Appel (22,967 votes) and Beatriz Leyva-Cutler (17,336) were easily re-elected over challenger Abdur Sikder (4552 votes).

Local Measures Results

E-1, BSEP, parcel tax for schools, YES 30,204 votes, 88.3%

U1, tax on big landlords for affordable housing YES  24,394 votes,  74.1%  (not so different from 76.2% for the soda tax in 2014)

DD, phony landlord sponsored alternative to U1, NO  22,810 votes, 70.8% (that’s the NOs)

T1, Bond measure for infrastructure, parks, senior centers YES 28,865,  86,5%

X1, Public Financing of Elections for Mayor and Council YES  19,356 votes, 64.2%

Y1, 16-17 year olds vote for School Board YES, 21,518, 68.5%

AA, regulating owner move in evictions, YES 22,309 votes, 72.3%

BB, minimum wage $15 in 2019, NO 20,789 votes, 66.0%

CC, minimum wage $15 in 2017, NO 20,573 votes, 65.9%

A1, County Bond for affordable housing, YES  264,499, countywide votes, 72.3%

CI, AC Transit parcel tax, YES, 190,019 votes in the district, 81.9%

RR, BART bond, YES, 253,175 votes, 70.9%

–by Rob Wrenn

Other Election Results: