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Preliminary results were in Tuesday evening for the races on this year’s ballot in Contra Costa County, with initial results from vote-by-mail and early-voting ballots released by the county clerk’s office suggesting a path to victory for several incumbents as well as two tax measures in the San Ramon Valley.
The first updated results released by the county Election Night are the counts so far for 303,348 Contra Costa voters who cast vote-by-mail or early in-person ballots, with those numbers alone accounting for 41.96% of the 722,861 registered voters in the county.
Measure Q
According to the initial tallies, a majority of those voters are in favor of the two tax measures being proposed to voters in the San Ramon Valley Unified School District and the City of San Ramon, with Measure Q – the $144 parcel tax measure aimed at replacing an existing measure set to expire next year in the school district – garnering 73.45% support so far, well over the two-thirds threshold required for it to pass.
Measure N
Measure N, the 1% sales tax measure for San Ramon, was also ahead in the initial results, albeit with a slightly more narrow margin at 55.4% support compared with 44.6% no votes. But unlike Measure Q, Measure N requires only a simple majority in order to pass.
San Ramon mayor
Sitting San Ramon Councilmember Mark Armstrong – who was elected to a four-year term in the seat in 2022 – could be set to vacate that position following what appears to have been a successful run for mayor according to early Election Night results, with 72.56% of the vote compared with 27.4% for political newcomer Chirag Kathrani.
San Ramon City Council
The race for the San Ramon City Council seat representing District 1, which is set to be vacated by longtime councilmember Scott Perkins, was the closest in the San Ramon Valley as of Election Night. Of the two first-time candidates vying for that position, attorney Robert Jweinat was slightly ahead, with 50.54% of the vote compared with 49.46% for finance and technology executive Vasanth Shetty. That narrow lead consisted of just 59 votes.
SRVUSD Board of Education
Meanwhile, incumbents appeared to dominate races throughout the San Ramon Valley, with both sitting SRVUSD Board of Education trustees pulling ahead of their challengers in the preliminary tallies and longtime Danville councilmembers Newell Arnerich and Renee Morgan coming in ahead in the four-candidate race for three at-large seats on the Danville Town Council.
SRVUSD Area 2 Trustee had the most support of San Ramon Valley incumbents on this year’s ballot as of the early results, which reported her at 61.87% of the vote compared with 38.13% for challenger Karin Shumway. Her fellow incumbent, Area 3 trustee Laura Bratt, was also ahead of challenger Sukriti Sehgal by a smaller margin at 56.66% of the vote compared with Sehgal’s 43.34%.
Danville Town Council
Seven-term councilmember Arnerich was the top pick among the four Danville Town Council candidates 30.81% of the vote as of the first update from the county, closely followed by Morgan with 30.27% of ballots counted so far. Newcomer Mark Belotz was ahead in the race for the third seat up for grabs with 29.05% of the initial tally compared with 9.85% for fellow newcomer Julia Gillette.
Central San
San Ramon Planning Commissioner Jean Kuznik was ahead in the early results for the seat representing San Ramon on the Central Contra Costa Sanitary District Board of Directors, with 75.78% of the vote compared with 24.18% for her opponent Bansidhar Giri.
CCCCD Board of Education
Diana Honig was in the lead in the race for the Ward 2 seat on the Contra Costa Community College District Board of Education currently occupied by Judy Walters, with 75.14% of the vote compared with 24.83% for her opponent Kofi Opong-Mensah.
State Legislature
The State Senate District 5 contest, which includes most of the southern Tri-Valley, remains too close to call. Former congressman Jerry McNerney (D-Pleasanton) is ahead of Jim Shoemaker (R-San Joaquin County) by 591 votes, 50.2% to 49.8%.
In State Senate District 9, which includes the San Ramon Valley, Assemblymember Tim Grayson is comfortably ahead of fellow Democrat and San Ramon City Councilmember Marisol Rubio, 55.2% to 44.8%.
State Assemblymember Rebecca Bauer-Kahan (D-Orinda) seems to have won easy reelection to a fourth term, defeating Alamo Republican Joe Rubay for the third straight time – margin at 63.5% to 36.5%.
Congress
In the U.S. House of Representatives, incumbent Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Livermore) finished Election Night with 63.6% to the 36.4% of Vin Kruttiventi (R-Pleasanton) in District 14.
In the Tri-Valley’s other area, District 10 incumbent Rep. Mark DeSaulnier (D-Concord) appeared poised for another term in office with a strong lead of 66% of the results at the end of Election Night compared with 34% for Republican challenger Katherine Piccinini of Oakley.
For the second California seat in the U.S. Senate, Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Burbank), an alumnus of Monte Vista High School in Danville, was in the lead over Republican challenger Steve Garvey as of Election Night with more than 57% of the vote for both the full and the partial term that both are on the ballot for in the statewide race.
The reported totals to date represent early vote-by-mail ballots and Election Day tallies at the polls; there are an unknown number of eligible mail-in ballots, along with provisional and conditional ballots, left to process.
