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Just five months after being recalled from his seat in the June primary, former Supervisor Ignacio Velasquez is leading the race for his old District 5 seat in early returns reported by San Benito County elections.
Early voting totals from Tuesday night showed Velazquez with 328 votes (38.9%). In second place was local business owner Rodney Bianchi with 275 votes (32.6%), and retired business owner John Williams was in third place with 240 votes (28.5%).
With vote counts being early, Velazquez declined to comment on his narrow lead in the race. The three candidates all agreed it was too early to speculate on the results.
Though he was recalled in June, a change in state law from 2022 allowed Velazquez to run to complete his term in office, which will conclude in 2028. Because the election is a vacancy, not a succession, he was found to be eligible to run for the term despite initially being told otherwise by the local elections office.
Velazquez is believed to be the second elected official in the state to seek the same seat from which he had been recalled.
Supporters of the recall have said their efforts were prompted by Velazquez’ handling of the fire service contract between San Benito County and the city of Hollister, along with public safety funding. Velazquez’ counterargument for the recall has been that it has been funded by special interest groups who have disagreed with his stance on slowing residential growth.
Meanwhile, Hollister mayoral candidate Tim Burns has also taken an early 132-vote lead against opponent Tina Garza while the other two races in the Hollister City Council are separated by 17 and 13 votes, respectively.
Garza said there is a lot of time before the final count and that it’s up to the community to choose the next mayor.
“They will make the final decision,” she said. “I’m fine with it. I respect the people’s choice.”
Burns, who has a total of 1,341 votes, and candidate Scott McPhail, who has garnered 310 votes, did not immediately respond to BenitoLink’s request for comment.
District 2 council challenger William Avera said he was happy being narrowly down early because it means he has a chance to win. Avera, who spoke with BenitoLink after he was behind by 12 votes after the first reported results, also said the city dealing with firing its city manager in the last few weeks won’t help incumbents such as his opponent councilmember Dolores Morales and that he expects a tightly contested race until the end.
“I never expected (the race) to be a blow out one way or another,” he said.
Morales, who is seeking her second complete term on the council, said there are still a lot of votes to be counted and that she was grateful to the voters, campaign volunteers and family.
“This campaign was about Hollister’s future, and whatever the final count says, I’ll keep showing up for Hollister,” she said.
District 3 council candidate Frida Benjamin said though she isn’t happy about being down early, she expects it to be a tight race. She said it’ll be hard waiting until all the votes are counted.
“You can never tell what people are thinking,” she said. “You can listen to them and talk to them but their final thoughts are in their mind.”
Her opponent Brian Chavez did not immediately respond to BenitoLink’s request for comment.
In the race for three seats on the San Juan Bautista City Council, Eduardo Guaracha has taken a lead with 173 votes, followed by incumbent Jackie Morris-Lopez with 133 votes and Elise Brentnall with 132 votes. Incumbent and current Mayor Leslie Jordan is trailing well behind with 65 votes.
Complete election results can be found here.
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