By David Allen
You won’t be surprised to hear that Donald Trump beat Kamala Harris in the Inland Empire. But Harris performed better here than you might have predicted.
In Riverside County, Harris had 48% of the vote as of Friday morning. In San Bernardino County, she had 46%. Sure, she lost, but in Kern County, she polled only 38%.
More predictable is how Steve Garvey fared versus Adam Schiff. If Garvey were representing the IE instead of the entire state, he’d be the new senator, and by a comfortable margin: He got 54% in San Bernardino County and 52% in Riverside County. Schiff won the state with 57%.
Now that’s the IE we know and love (or shake our head at).
Welcome to my post-election roundup. The above aside, the idea is to offer a few thoughts on local outcomes or trends, some of which might pass with little notice otherwise.
For starters, out in Needles, voters have — OK, just kidding. Let’s stick a bit closer to home. And we’ll begin with an unusual one.
In Menifee, the District 3 race’s ballot had a rarity, an official write-in candidate. Jay Sno-Fly as of Thursday had collected, ah, six votes. Sadly, Sno-Fly was no shoo-in.
More seriously, in many cities, council incumbents were returned without opposition, such as in Corona (Tony Daddario, Tom Richins), Chino Hills (Cynthia Moran) and Upland (Shannan Maust, Bill Velto). Or without breaking a sweat, such as in Claremont (Corey Calaycay, Sal Medina) and Ontario (Debra Porada).
Some contested races weren’t remotely close. Longtime Chino Mayor Eunice Ulloa creamed Paul Rodriguez, 72% to 28%, running over him like a tractor. In Rancho Cucamonga, Lynne Kennedy did even better, collecting 74% against Steven Lacey.
A few incumbents might have lost if not for a lucky break: having two challengers, not one. Again in Rancho Cucamonga, Ashley Stickler won with 41%, topping Luis Cetina and Erick Jimenez. This means 59% effectively voted against Stickler, but she won anyway.
Same in Fontana, where council outlier Jesse Sandoval, who often casts protest votes, won with 42% support, with two opponents splitting the anti-Sandoval vote.
Sometimes a candidate almost seems like an incumbent, even if they technically aren’t.
In Temecula, Matt Rahn had given up his council seat in 2022 to run unsuccessfully for state Assembly. He was back on the ballot Tuesday for his old council seat and won handily. It’ll be as if he never left.
In Pomona, John Nolte was trounced by Debra Martin, another familiar name who’d previously served a single term on the council from 2012-2016.
In San Bernardino, city of contrasts, two candidates who had once been incumbents both lost.
Henry Nickel, who was booted from his council seat in 2020, sought to return to the 5th Ward but lost to Kim Knaus. Jim Penman, who had been the elected city attorney until 2013, lost the 7th Ward race to Treasure Ortiz.
Name recognition can help but can do only so much.
Occasionally a city election is almost a free-for-all. In Norco, six candidates sought three seats, one of them open.
Robin Grundmeyer keeps her seat as the top vote-getter. Two newcomers, Greg Bowen and Fia Sullivan, will fill the other two slots. The other incumbent, Kathleen Aleman, who was opposed by most of the establishment and was passed over twice to be rotated into the mayor’s seat, finished fourth. Politics is a rough business.
The conservative tilt among some school boards remained or intensified. In Chino Valley Unified, the board’s lone dissenter, Don Bridge, opted not to run again after being on the losing end of dozens of 4-1 votes, and who could blame him? With the reelection of Andrew Cruz and James Na, and the election of John Cervantes, the board may go 5-0 to the right.
A few local ballot measures caught my attention.
In Riverside, voters approved Measure L, which establishes a city-selected government watchdog. We’ll have to keep an eye on that.
In Pomona, Measure Y, which was put on the ballot by nonprofits, would gradually shift an additional 10% of the city budget toward children. And away from what, exactly? Some 72% of the budget goes to public safety. This strikes me as a “defund the police” measure in disguise.
A one-cent sales tax appears headed for approval in Fontana, where Measure T was getting 52% support, and in Yucaipa, where Measure S had 60%. Each would put millions of dollars a year into city coffers.
Faced with an identical tax, Upland said: “Not so fast.” Measure N got clobbered, mustering only 35% support. City Hall would have gained $20 million a year to hire cops and pave the city’s notoriously potholed streets.
Uplanders, it seems, prefer to save their pennies, then give them directly to criminals and tire centers.
Lastly, if you’re among those who wonder if your vote matters, check out these two examples to the contrary.
In the Chino Valley Independent Fire District, incumbent John DeMonaco was at war with the firefighters union, which backed Andrew Romaine, a retired firefighter, with contributions the Chino Valley Champion reported as topping $77,000.
That’s a veritable firehose of cash. Also, it’s a lot of lettuce for Romaine.
Anyway, Romaine was ahead Wednesday by 35 votes, until things flip-flopped Thursday and DeMonaco was on top by four votes. His lead, such as it was, widened Friday to six votes.
Then consider the City Council in Montclair (pop. 36,000).
For the second of two seats on the ballot, incumbent Tenice Johnson and candidate Xavier Mendez on Wednesday were tied at 1,703 votes apiece. What were the odds? That shifted Thursday when Mendez inched ahead by eight votes, a lead cut to six votes on Friday.
Montclair’s Ben Lopez, meanwhile, had 2,416 votes as of late Friday. Lopez, the council’s pariah, who has been censured for misconduct and has cost City Hall more than $700,000 in legal payouts, is the top vote-getter? His showing must be satisfying for him, if not so much for his colleagues.
