GILROY
– Nearly two full days after the election, the winner of the
third vacant City Council seat could change by Friday.
A throng of 159 last minute absentee ballots came into Gilroy
polling places Tuesday, an amount high enough to potentially tip
the scales of a close City Council race. Paul Correa, who is in
third place in an election with three open Council seats, is only
74 votes ahead of the next highest vote-getter, Dion Bracco.
GILROY – Nearly two full days after the election, the winner of the third vacant City Council seat could change by Friday.
A throng of 159 last minute absentee ballots came into Gilroy polling places Tuesday, an amount high enough to potentially tip the scales of a close City Council race. Paul Correa, who is in third place in an election with three open Council seats, is only 74 votes ahead of the next highest vote-getter, Dion Bracco.
“There’s no telling what can happen given the way things bounced around last night,” Bracco said Wednesday. “We just have to wait and see.”
The 159 undetermined votes could allow Bracco to overtake Correa and second-place finisher Russ Valiquette. Valiquette is 145 votes ahead of Bracco but within reach of the surprise contender.
Enough votes could also re-elect Peter Arellano, who trails Bracco by only 15 votes and Correa by 89 votes.
Only candidates Mark Dover and Bruce Morasca are mathematically eliminated from the race. Roland Velasco’s first-place finish is mathematically safe. He had 2,415 votes in his favor, garnering 19.1 percent of the vote and placing him more than 350 votes ahead of Valiquette.
The registrar’s office expects to have the absentee ballots counted by late Friday.
When early election results were released Tuesday, Bracco was in third place and held that position well into the night. However, a late push by Correa supporters ousted the first-time candidate from the third spot once all precincts had reported.
Given the usual conservative bent of absentee ballots, Correa’s standing is at risk and the candidate said he is “concerned” over the news. Ironically, the professional land-use planner called his election victory bittersweet Tuesday when fellow union-backed candidate Peter Arellano did not get re-elected.
“I just have to wait until Friday I guess and hope for the best,” Correa said.
The news of the absentee ballots comes on the heals of an anonymous phone call made to City Administrator Jay Baksa on Friday claiming Correa was not a resident of Gilroy.
Correa has firmly denied the claims and faxed copies of his California driver’s license, a phone bill, a student loan bill and an insurance bill to The Dispatch to help dispute the claims. The 9482 Eagle Hills Way address that Correa listed on campaign filings matches the addresses on those documents.
Correa said the claim was a racist and right-wing attempt to hurt his election hopes.
According to Baksa, the city will not investigate the matter since the caller offered no proof.
A failed City Council bid by Correa and Arellano would spell yet another defeat of a union-endorsed slate of candidates. Arellano, Correa, Mark Dover, Bruce Morasca and Lupe Arellano, in the mayoral race, all got union backing. All lost Tuesday.
On Tuesday, first-place finisher Roland Velasco said the defeat of a union slate of candidates was a good thing for Gilroy politics.
“This sends a very clear message that money and influence of special interest groups doesn’t buy votes in Gilroy,” Velasco said Tuesday.
Velasco raised $19,000 of mostly local money to run his campaign – the largest sum of any non-mayoral candidate. He said the fund raising was necessary because he didn’t have the luxury of campaign mailers getting paid for by unions.
Last-minute campaign finance filings show that nearly $5,000 was spent by the Oakland-based Health Care Workers Union Local 250 for a two-sided glossy mailer that went out the weekend of the election. Correa said he had no knowledge of plans to produce the mailer.
The South Bay AFL-CIO Labor Council spent $5,670 on a pro-Correa mailer, $52 on phone bank calling and $521 on “salaries” related to the two services. South Bay AFL-CIO also spent $1,295 on a mailer supporting Peter Arellano.
The union slate of candidates, absent Dover, also got last minute support from State Assemblyman Simon Salinas. Bilingual doorknob hangers were delivered to Gilroy residences just days before the election and households were called with recorded phone messages by the Assemblyman. At least some of the messages asked voters to support Correa.
Other questions regarding the make-up of the city dais also remain unanswered.
Charlie Morales, who in June got arrested for drinking and driving, has a pretrial conference Nov. 13 in San Benito County. He has pled not guilty, but could change that plea or go to trial well before his seat expires in November 2005.
The June DUI is not Morales’ first and a guilty plea or verdict could land him in jail for 10 days to a year.
According to the city charter, any elected official convicted serving more than 60 days in jail will be removed from office. If Morales is forced to resign his post, City Council will appoint a replacement to serve the remainder of Morales’ term, but the city charter does not specify who that must be.
“We’d have to look at situations in the past when Councils had to replace someone and see what they did. The biggest ingredient (in my decision) will be voter will,” Mayor-elect Al Pinheiro said. “But I haven’t thought a lot about this. I’m still trying to savor the moment.”
Correa echoed Pinheiro’s sentiments. Correa said he would encourage the city to do some sort of public outreach to better gauge what citizens would want.
In the past, according to City Clerk Rhonda Pellin, Councils have appointed the next highest vote getter as well as former Council members to fill vacant posts.
With questions about the future Council looming, some Gilroyans are still trying to answer why voter turnout was so dismally low.
Official figures were not released by the registrar’s office by deadline, but based on the 4,593 mayoral ballots cast, turnout may have been as low as 26.5 percent.
Indirectly, this is another blow to the unions. This summer, the South Bay AFL-CIO helped organize Gilroy First!, a local get-out-the-vote organization.
Gilroy First! said it registered 500 new voters since its inception and focused its efforts on getting voters out to polls for the local election.
In 2001, 27.4 percent of voters cast ballots.
“I’m stumped,” said Gilroy First! spokeswoman Rose Barry. “People in our country died for the right to vote. It makes me cry to see Gilroyans be so blasé about it.”
