Barring a miracle, incumbent District 1 Supervisor Margie Barrios has squeaked by a challenger who campaigned on a message that county leaders have not done enough to reduce the size of government.
In reflecting on the race in which she holds a 3-point lead (709 votes to 668) over Mark Starritt with few ballots left to count, Barrios said she understands that some voters didn’t believe she and other supervisors – facing continual deficits and a $5.5 million hole next fiscal year – did enough to cut county costs the past four years.
“I think it’s a general mood,” Barrios said, “and I believe that his campaign was about, perhaps, the county has not done enough to cut costs.
“We’re not done. We’re moving forward in doing that.”
With about 300 ballots left to count in District 1 and 1,500 throughout the county – comprised of late mail-in ballots – Starritt thought he probably would pick up votes but lose by a slim margin.
“The budget is the primary concern right now (among voters),” Starritt said. “Knowing it as long as they have, they’ve pretty much jeopardized a lot of things. It just comes back down to, people are not happy with what’s going on.”
He said he was “late on the trail” for a campaign because he had other obligations to clear up before running.
“If I had another week or two, I think I would’ve clobbered her,” said Starritt, adding that he would “hate to see somebody run unopposed.”
District 2 Supervisor Anthony Botelho and District 5 Supervisor Jaime De La Cruz were opposed, too, but both cruised to easy victories.
Botelho led 57.5 to 42.2 percent (916 votes to 671) over challenger Arturo Medina. He said the margin of victory won’t necessarily affect his approach in the next four years.
“Whether I won by one vote or 20 percent, I’m going to do the best I can to have the San Benito County budget sustainable with services,” he said.
He said local officials are all hoping the national economy has hit bottom. He said this past year has been the most challenging in regard to cuts but noted that supervisors have started to reduce pension costs in particular.
“That’s going to be the key for our success for this year’s budget,” he said, adding he’s “very optimistic for the future.”
Medina said he was disappointed with voter turnout, which should end up around 33 percent.
“Hopefully, he did take some input from what I was campaigning about,” Medina said.
District 5 Supervisor Jaime De La Cruz said challenger Sonny Flores, who did not return a phone call, ran a clean campaign and he was “very humbled” by a third term from voters. De La Cruz led 65.9 percent to 33.1 percent (595 to 299 votes). He said the goal now is “maximizing our dollars” for public services.
“That’s really the goal,” he said. “I hope it’s the goal of the other two supervisors elected to office.”
