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The Pleasanton City Council seems set to soon have two new members on the dais as the most recent election results show first-time candidates Craig Eicher and Matt Gaidos each with a comfortable lead in the respective District 2 and District 4 races.
According to the tallies reported by Alameda County officials as of Monday morning, Eicher leads by nearly 700 votes as he looks to unseat District 2 incumbent Valerie Arkin while Gaidos maintains a slim 400-vote lead over his opponent and fellow Planning Commissioner Vivek Mohan.
“I am thrilled with the current vote counts and remain hopeful as we await the final tally,” Eicher told the Weekly on Tuesday. “It is an honor to be in this position, and I look forward to working collaboratively with the other council members and our community to strengthen the city’s financial health, all while minimizing any potential impacts of necessary budget reductions.”
Eicher has 55.11% (3,673 votes) of the votes compared to Arkin, who is right behind him with 44.89% (2,992 votes), according to the county. Eicher has maintained that 500-plus vote lead since last week.
The former police captain said he hopes the new incoming council will be able to “address the challenges ahead and improve our city’s situation for the long term”.
“The road ahead will undoubtedly have its challenges, but I am confident that, through collaboration and renewed decorum, we can build a brighter, more prosperous future for all,” Eicher said.
He added that while he is ahead in the race, there are still ballots to count before the results are finalized. As of Tuesday morning the Alameda County Registrar of Voters’ Office had tallied 483,986 total ballots, according to the Secretary of State’s Office. The office also shows there are still 187,135 unprocessed ballots.
Arkin told the Weekly on Tuesday that while she is not officially conceding the race just yet, she is proud of the work she was able to do on the council in the four years since she was first elected in 2020.
“I am proud to have had the opportunity to serve Pleasanton,” Arkin said.
She boasted about the support she helped provide to businesses and residents during the COVID pandemic, how she voted in favor of the police department’s new Alternative Response Unit, approving the city’s new Housing Element, the work the council has done to address the forever chemicals in the city’s drinking water and all the other community improvements she helped pass.
“Pleasanton is a wonderful city that provides excellent services and amenities to our community,” Arkin said. “I am proud to have taken an active role in ensuring that Pleasanton continues to offer a high quality of life for future generations. I wish the new Council much success and hope they always make decisions with the best interests of Pleasanton in mind.”
Meanwhile the District 4 race between two first-time candidates, Gaidos and Mohan, continues to be decided by a margin of votes that started off strong in Gaidos’ favor but has since narrowed with Mohan seeing more votes go toward him since Election Night.
According to the Monday update from the county, 52.88% (3,696 votes) prefer Gaidos — the Pleasanton native and prosecutor for the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office — over Mohan, a first-generation immigrant who has called Pleasanton his home for the past 12 years and founded two small companies. Mohan stood at 47.12% (3,293 votes).
“I am thankful that the registrar of voters has taken additional efforts to work towards delivering a final count for the county-wide election,” Gaidos told the Weekly on Monday. “There are important issues to get to work on at both the county and city level and I am eager to lend my experience and expertise to make this city and county a desirable, safe, and attractive place for residents and businesses.”
Mohan, however, said he is still waiting for the county to “do its thing and get to some level of closure on the results”.
“It’s close,” Mohan told the Weekly on Wednesday morning. “We need to know how many votes are still left to be counted.”
He added that the county’s delay in counting ballots is not a good look and that if it wasn’t for community pressure, it would have probably taken even longer to tally everyone’s vote.
“We live in Silicon Valley, the tech and knowledge capital of the world,” Mohan said. “We should be role models for safe, secure (and) near-instantaneous results.”
The registrar’s office is set to drop another round of election number updates on Friday.
