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Jack Balch controlled Election Night with an almost 10% lead over incumbent Karla Brown in the Pleasanton mayor race, according to the tallies reported by the Alameda County Registrar of Voters’ Office as of early Wednesday morning.
The registrar’s office update as of 1:04 a.m. shows the initial vote-by-mail turnout of 163,665 (17.01%) and day-of-election turnout of 69,781 (7.26%) of registered voters in the county.
A current city councilmember whose term expired this year, Balch is ahead by 54.56% (6,412 votes), according to the initial numbers. Brown, who is seeking a third term as mayor, trails behind with 45.44% (5,340 votes).
Balch, who was first elected to the City Council in 2020 after previously serving on the city’s Planning Commission and Parks and Recreation Commission, has been running on a platform of fiscal responsibility and believing the city needs a fresh start.
Brown, who was first elected as mayor in 2020 and won unopposed in 2022, ran a campaign where she lauded how much she has already done for Pleasanton — like taking over during a global pandemic — and how her experience will continue to benefit the city.
The contentious race has been a major talking point in city politics because if Balch unseats Brown, it could possibly mean a flip in the council majority. However, the council majority flipping would also depend on the District 2 and District 4 races.
City Council District 2
Retired Pleasanton police Capt. Craig Eicher is currently leading by nearly 500 votes in the District 2 City Council race as he seeks to unseat incumbent Valerie Arkin, according to the Election Night results.
Eicher, who also served as the city’s interim police chief for about six months between 2019 and 2020, has 57.84% (1,826 votes) of the early votes compared to Arkin, the longtime Pleasanton Unified School District Board of Trustee seeking a second term on the council, who is right behind him with 42.16% (1,331 votes).
City Council District 4
Pleasanton Planning Commission Chairperson Matt Gaidos is narrowly pulling ahead in the District 4 City Council race over his opponent and fellow Planning Commissioner Vivek Mohan, according to the Wednesday morning numbers.
According to the initial returns, 52.93% (1,626 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 47.07% (1,446 votes).
Measure PP
The early polling results currently show that the city’s proposed half-cent sales tax increase, Measure PP, was trailing on Election Night.
The revenue measure needs a simple majority to pass and the first round of election results show that 53.60% (6,246 votes) are against the measure while 46.40% (5,408 votes) are in support of the tax increase.
Measure PP would bring Pleasanton’s sales tax up from 10.25% to 10.75% and would supposedly bring in roughly $10 million every year in revenue exclusively for the city.
Pleasanton is facing a significant structural deficit that could cost the city tens of millions of dollars each year, according to the city. City staff have projected a yearly budget shortfall starting at $10,788,817 in 2026, with that number rising as high as $15,678,578 in 2030.
PUSD Area 3
Pleasanton Unified School District Area 3 incumbent Trustee Kelly Mokashi is on track for a second stint on the school board as the first round of polling results show a moderate lead over challenger Donalyn Harris.
Harris, a Pleasanton native, longtime member of various parent-teacher associations across the district and a former substitute teacher, was behind nearly 350 votes as Mokashi had 56% (1,572 votes) while Harris had 44% (1,235 votes).
PUSD Area 4
In the closest race in Pleasanton, Charlie Jones, who grew up in Pleasanton and now teaches social studies at a high school in Hayward, held a slim lead over Jen Flynn, a former Hearst Elementary School administrative secretary and parent of three PUSD students, in the Area 4 trustee race, according to the registrar’s office.
As the night went on that lead shrunk to the point where the two candidates are now separated by a handful of votes as the most recent results show Jones has 50.64% (1,023 votes) while Flynn has 49.36% (997 votes). One of the main talking points in the race was how Jones received thousands of dollars in campaign funds from people and organizations outside of Pleasanton while Flynn mainly received local funds.
Sunol school board
Recently ousted Sunol school board trustee Ryan Jergensen trailed far behind first-time candidate Erin Choin who seeks to make sure the recalled former trustee does not regain a seat on the board.
Choin, who was one of the people to work on the campaign to recall the two trustees, is a Sunol Glen School parent, resident and substitute teacher. She currently holds an advantage of 58.99% (128 votes). Jergensen, who was originally serving a term from 2022 to 2026 before being recalled in July, is trailing with 41.01% (89 votes).
The two are running for the seat that was previously occupied by also-recalled trustee Linda Hurley.
Alameda County DA recall
Election Night returns show that Alameda County residents want to recall first-term District Attorney Pamela Price.
According to the registrar’s office, 64.79% (134,256) of voters wish to recall the county’s first African American District Attorney while 35.21% (72,977) of voters do not wish to see the top county prosecutor leave. If the numbers continue to trend how they are, Price could also be the first district attorney in the county’s history to be recalled.
Price recently came under fire from two prominent Tri-Valley residents – Rep. Eric Swalwell and Price’s predecessor, Nancy O’Malley — who have been vocal in their support for the pro-recall campaign to remove Price from office partway through the six-year term she was elected to in 2022.
Dublin mayor
Current Vice Mayor Sherry Hu leads the race for Dublin mayor by about 250 votes at 36.71% (3,153 votes).
Close behind her is Tom Evans at 2,809 or 32.70% of the vote. Next up is Councilmember Jean Josey at 2,323 votes or 27.05%. And lagging in last is Shawn Costello who has received 304 votes or 3.54%.
Dublin City Council
In District 3, John Morada leads over Razi Hasni by about 8% of the vote. Morada has collected 899 votes or 54.05%, whereas Hasni has received 759 votes.
In District 1, current Mayor Michael McCorriston was the only candidate and has received 100% of the votes so far.
DUSD Board of Trustees
Kristian Reyes has collected about 15% more votes than Ram Shanbhogue in the race for the Dublin Unified School District Trustee Area 1 seat — 907 votes for Reyes brings him to 56.94% and 686 for Shanbhogue brings him to 43.06%.
Measure II
Measure II, the “Dublin Traffic Relief, Clean Air/Open Space Preservation Measure” is sitting at 4,995 Yes votes or 57.92% of the votes counted so far. This exceeds the majority threshold required to pass, with the No side at 42.08% (3,629 votes).
If passed, Dublin City Council will gain the power to approve limited commercial development along the future Dublin Boulevard extension. The area under consideration includes the unincorporated land between Dublin and Livermore called the Crosby property.
Measure JJ
The “Government Accountability Act,” has received voter approval with a landslide 79.50% saying Yes to the measure. As it stands now, 6,806 have voted in favor of the measure whereas 1,755 have voted against it (20.50%).
If passed, the measure would instate anti-lobbying and transparency rules as well as a term limit extension for future Dublin mayors and council members.
BART Board of Directors, District 5
Incumbent Melissa Hernandez, the former Dublin mayor, leads the race with 68.30% of the votes for BART Board of Directors in District 5. Far behind is Joseph Grcar who has collected 13,860 votes to Hernandez’s 29,866 votes.
Hernandez is likely to represent Tri-Valley stations and those in Castro Valley and Hayward once again.
CLPCCD Board of Trustees
In Area 4, incumbent Maria Heredia is on track to maintain her seat on the college board, having gathered 64.21% of the vote so far. Heredia has earned 8,332 votes while Joseph Grcar trails at 4,645.
The winner will represent Castro Valley, east San Lorenzo, Sunol and areas of Pleasanton.
Races for Areas 5 and 7 are uncontested, so Catheryn Grier (Area 5) and incumbent Steve Lanza (Area 7) are set for appointment by the board in lieu of an election.
Hayward voters have also weighed in on their representation for Area 1, favoring Hector Garcia with 71.15% of the vote over incumbent Luis Reynoso at 28.85%.
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.
