Riverside council races headed for runoffs

With no candidates receiving a simple majority, all four Riverside City Council seats are headed for runoffs this November.

The final tallies for the June 5th mail-in election for wards 1, 3, 5 and 7 show that of the four wards, candidate Rusty Bailey came the closest to winning outright against Ward 3 incumbent Art Gage. However, Bailey's 49.1% was just shy of the "50% + 1 vote" amount needed to capture the seat and will face Gage (44.2%) in November's runoff. Candidate Pete Olmos received 6.7% of the votes.

Messy campaign
(and messy campaign signage)

In Ward 1, incumbent Dom Betro garnered 44.7% of the tally and will face runner-up Mike Gardner (32.3%) come November. Candidates Letitia Pepper and Derek Thesier received 19.7% and 3.3% respectively.

In Ward 5, Chris MacArthur (41%) will face off against Donna Doty-Michalka (30.2%). Candidates Harry Kurani and Robert Rodriguez received 21.1% and 5.4% respectively. Ward 5 was the only race not to feature an incumbent as current councilman Ed Adkison chose not to seek reelection.

In Ward 7, incumbent Steve Adams (34%) will face runner-up Terry Frizzel (25.9%). Candidates Roy Saldanha, Art Garcia and Daniel Gressmann received 19.1%, 17.1% and 3.9% respectively.

This particular round of council races had its moments of drama, including accusations of campaign sign vandalism, harsh criticism of some members on the current council, charges of eminent domain abuse and brisk talk on the $1.2 billion Riverside Renaissance Initiative, which from what we can ascertain, the majority of residents favor. But, with at least one major council critic failing to make the November runoff, we expect the coming round of campaigning to be more rational and civil.

Related

InstantRiverside.com

• Confirmed: There will be a runoff in Ward 3 (June 7)


• City Council campaign becomes messy (June 5)


• How will your vote change this group? (June 1)

Riverside Press-Enterprise

• Runoffs ahead for city council candidates (June 8)


• Mail-in turnout running ahead of previous Riverside council races (June 5)


• Riverside City Council candidate told to stop posting signs illegally on city property (June 1)


• Riverside City Council candidates file finance statements (May 26)


• E-mailed nastygrams sling campaign mud (May 16)


• Riverside councilman's backers angered by sign vandalism (May 12)


• Riverside Ward 7 challengers distance themselves from incumbent (May 5)


• Political neophytes eye Ward 5 council seat (May 4)


• Ward 3 pits incumbent, two challengers in Riverside (May 3)


• Ward 1 race about more than downtown Riverside (May 2)