Rivas defeats Loe in District 3; run-off slated in District
4
County voters spoke loudly Tuesday night that they want new
voices in two supervisor seats.
Both incumbents lost by a wide margin Tuesday after each served
as supervisor for the past eight years. Reb Monaco was the odd man
out in a three-person race for District 4 and Pat Loe was
overwhelmed by the Robert Rivas campaign in District 3.
Rivas defeats Loe in District 3; run-off slated in District 4
County voters spoke loudly Tuesday night that they want new voices in two supervisor seats.
Both incumbents lost by a wide margin Tuesday after each served as supervisor for the past eight years. Reb Monaco was the odd man out in a three-person race for District 4 and Pat Loe was overwhelmed by the Robert Rivas campaign in District 3.
Rivas gained more than 70 percent of the vote in the head-to-head ballot for District 3 over Loe, according to unofficial results from Tuesday’s election. Without a third candidate, he will be seated once her term expires at year’s end.
The aggressive Rivas campaign was knocking on doors through Tuesday’s election, Rivas said.
Rivas and his brother Rick didn’t stop talking to people until 7 p.m. Tuesday, an hour before polls closed.
“At 7 p.m., after we tried to get as many people as we could to go vote, we called it a campaign,” he said. “We realized there was nothing else we could have done. We reached every voter.”
Rivas couldn’t quell his excitement for what was next.
“I can’t say it enough, but I’m excited,” he said. “The results speak for themselves. My neighbors and San Benito County want a real change.”
Rivas stressed the campaign wasn’t about him but about change.
“It wasn’t a campaign about me – it was about our future,” he said. “It’s about getting San Benito County back on the right track.”
The 30-year-old Rivas will replace Loe who was first elected to the supervisor role in 2002. Loe, the first woman Hollister mayor, has been involved with local politics in some capacity for the last 30 years. Loe didn’t return phone calls before press time.
In the District 4 race, Phil Fortino and Jerry Muenzer continued on to a runoff in the November general election, and Monaco was eliminated with only 15 percent of the vote, according to unofficial results.
Fortino led the way with more than 45 percent of the vote but Muenzer was close behind with a little more than 39 percent.
A total of 144 votes separated the top two.
Muenzer was happy with the result but he was more proud of how the campaigns were run, he said.
“We ran a good, clean race and I am so proud of that,” he said. “I’m excited and looking forward to a runoff and I am expecting another clean but hard-fought campaign.”
Muenzer did admit he was surprised by the vote totals for both Monaco and Loe, he said.
“I think they both got caught up in the anti-incumbent fever and that surprised me because they both served the community for eight years,” he said. “They’ve done a great job.”
Now Muenzer plans to continue to gather support in the upcoming months after knocking the incumbent out, he said.
“I’m proud of that and I’m very humbled by it,” he said. “It’s a case of, I just wanted to go out and show that their support was well placed and now we just have to get it done in November.”
Fortino said he was proud of how clean the campaigns were run.
“All three candidates were cordial toward one another. It was the cleanest campaign I have ever witnessed,” he said. “It’s a shame when campaigns go negative. That shouldn’t have to be what politics are all about.”
Fortino said he will continue to knock on doors in the upcoming months, hoping to stay the front-runner, but he realizes it will be tough.
“San Benito County has a tough road in front of it and it will take some real leadership,” Fortino said.
The two business-oriented candidates turned their focus to the November 2 general election that should grab more attention because of races for governor and U.S. Senate.
They will try to replace Monaco, who served on the board for the past eight years.
The current chairman was a teacher in the county for 32 years before he was elected in 2002. Monaco didn’t return phone calls before press time.
