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Contra Costa voters appear to have made clear choices for the countywide seats on the primary ballot, with the establishment candidates each holding well over 50% of the vote according to the latest election results and no runoff votes on the horizon in the general election later this year.
Voters overwhelmingly supported a second term for incumbent Clerk-Recorder Kristin Connelly, with new but familiar faces elected as auditor-controller, superintendent of schools and county assessor in wide-open races with no incumbent running – in some cases, for the first time in decades.
Connelly was at 87.08% of the vote as of the most recent count Friday afternoon, appearing to handily beat out challenger Pratima Sonavne, a Danville childcare operator with a background in human resources and systems administration.
Incumbent Jesse Hsieh, who faced a rare competitive race for Contra Costa County Superior Court Judge Q against challenger Valery Polyakov, also came out well in the lead with 71.85% of the vote.
While the remaining county government seats might have been open races for the first time in decades, some of the races had clear frontrunners even before votes were cast. Assistant auditor-controller Peter Karumbi and assistant county assessor Vince Robb both raked in well over the 50% of votes required to win their seats outright, with 78.87% and 67.66% of the vote, respectively.
Karumbi squared off with political newcomer and San Ramon resident Deepika Naharas, while Robb’s prominent campaign paid off in a three-way race against Crockett Community Services District director and longtime county employee Nick Spinner, and San Ramon executive and philanthropist Kismat Kathrani, who stood at 23.05% and 9.29%, respectively, as of the latest count.
At the start of next year, Robb is poised to succeed longtime Assessor Gus Kramer, who announced his retirement earlier this year, with Karumbi set to take the reins from Joanne Bohren, who was appointed to the seat last year to fill the remainder of the term for longtime office-holder Robert Campbell when he retired after more than 30 years on the job.
While the race for Contra Costa County superintendent of schools saw two experienced candidates with broad background in education, Brentwood Unified School District Superintendent Dana Eaton appeared to be the clear winner over Antioch Unified School District Board President Jag Lathan, with the two standing at 72.12% and 27.88% of the current tally, respectively.
Eaton was backed by more than 30 school superintendents, including outgoing Contra Costa County Superintendent of Schools Lynn Mackey.
Results are not yet certified, with an estimated 55,200 more ballots remaining to be counted, and none of the candidates had made public victory or concession statements as of Friday. However, those remaining ballots are not enough to change the outcomes of the races, in which the frontrunners are ahead by between 90,000 and 100,000 votes.
While it was Tuesday’s vote that decided the winners of the county races, the victories were preceded by campaigns that saw all four winning candidates well ahead of their opponents on the fundraising front. Robb’s campaign had already raked in $94,325 in contributions by the start of this year, bringing in another $64,885 in contributions in the current calendar year to date as of Election Day, making him the most well-funded county candidate in the current election cycle as of the most recent campaign finance reporting deadline.
The second most well-funded candidate according to the most recent numbers was Eaton, who brought in $64,539.00, more than double Lathan’s $32,036.
Connelly’s campaign raised $45,946 in this year’s cycle, with Karumbi bringing in $8,740. While those numbers are more modest than than the other two winners’ campaigns, they were nonetheless substantially higher than their opponents. Sonavne’s campaign raised $1,468, while Naharas’ brought in $2,802.
