Incumbents fare well in Contra Costa

CONTRA COSTA COUNTY, CA -- Contra Costa County voters re-elected nearly two dozen incumbents to city council seats throughout the county, but they also chose some new candidates to fill local government seats.

The race in Richmond was extremely close, with longtime City Council members Tom Butt and Nathaniel Bates appearing to win re-election, along with newcomer Jeff Ritterman, chief of cardiology at Kaiser Richmond. Jovanka Beckles, another newcomer to Richmond politics, was close behind the apparent winners, losing to Butt by just 426 votes.

Longtime council members John Marquez and Harpreet Sandhu, however, appear to have lost their seats.

In Antioch, incumbent Mayor Donald Freitas appears to be losing by less than 2 percent to Mayor Pro Tem James Davis.

Antioch's council race was also close with unofficial results appearing to favor newcomer Helen Rocha and incumbent Brian Kalinowski over incumbent Arne Simonson.

In Brentwood, Robert Taylor was elected as the city's mayor by a wide margin, earning 70.3 percent of the vote.

Incumbents Erick Stonebarger and Bob Brockman were also clear winners in Brentwood's city council race.

Julie Pierce, Joe Medrano and Howard Geller appear to be the winners of Clayton's city council race, with 26, 16.7 and 15.2 percent of the vote.

In Concord, incumbents Mark Peterson and Bill Shinn appear to have been re-elected to office.

Danville voters have chosen Michael Doyle and incumbents Newell Arnerich and Candace Anderson to be on their Town Council.

In El Cerrito, Ann Cheng, Greg Lyman and incumbent Bill Jones appear to have been elected to the City Council.

Incumbent Joanne Ward won re-election to the Hercules City Council, along with Ed Balico and John Delgado, who appears to have beat Donald Kuehne by less than 1 percent.

The race was clear in Lafayette where Carl Anduri and incumbents Mike Anderson and Carol Federighi were elected to the City Council.

Michael Metcalf was re-elected to his seat on the Moraga City Council, along with Karen Mendonca and possibly Howard Harpham who appears to have beat Janice Kolbe by a narrow margin.

Longtime Martinez City Council members Mark Ross and Janet Kennedy were re-elected to the council by a comfortable margin, Ross getting 39.8 percent of votes and Kennedy getting 29.43 percent.

Oakley incumbent Kevin Romick was re-elected to the council along with Jim Frazier and Pat Anderson, who appear to have taken one of those seats from Brad Nix.

Voters in Orinda and Pinole re-elected two incumbents in each city, Victoria Smith and Steven Glazer in Orinda and Peter Murray and Roy Swearingen in Pinole.

In Pleasant Hill, Karen Mitchoff and incumbents John Hanecak and David Durant appear to have been elected to the city council.

Local immigration activist and human rights advocate Arturo Cruz was elected to the San Pablo City Council, along with Cecile Valdez and incumbent Leonard McNeil.

Walnut Creek voters elected incumbent Gary Skrel, Bob Simmons and Kish Rajan to the City Council.

In East County, two-term Contra Costa County Supervisor Federal Glover appears to have beat out Antioch realtor Gary Agopian for the District 5 supervisors seat.

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