With only 25 votes to spare, incumbent Bob Cruz inched out a
victory over Jaime De La Cruz for the District 5 Board of
Supervisors seat, and District 1 candidate Don Marcus secured a
seat with a 51-percent win over candidates Marci Huston and Grant
Brians.
With only 25 votes to spare, incumbent Bob Cruz inched out a victory over Jaime De La Cruz for the District 5 Board of Supervisors seat, and District 1 candidate Don Marcus secured a seat with a 51-percent win over candidates Marci Huston and Grant Brians.
The District 2 seat will be decided in November’s regular election between candidates Anthony Botelho and Anthony Freitas, who ousted incumbent Ruth Kesler.
The long hours spent campaigning paid off for Cruz, but it took its toll, he said.
“I feel tired,” Cruz said. “It was a good race, it was exciting… but this has been a rough four months.”
Cruz expected a close race due to De La Cruz’s backing by several large organizations and his prior campaigning experience for his current seats on the Gavilan College Board of Trustees and the San Benito County Water District Board, he said.
“I have never taken this race lightly,” Cruz said. “I worked my butt off… I never felt that I was gonna win. All I knew was I had to work in order to beat him.”
Cruz, who generated some controversy in January when he had a No. 1 placed in front of his name on the ballot to differentiate himself from De La Cruz, said he felt the marker didn’t have any affect on Tuesday’s outcome.
“Did it make a difference? I don’t think so, not at all,” Cruz said. “Not when you see how the votes came out.”
With another term securely under his belt, Cruz now plans on confronting the larger issues at hand – many of which have to do with the passing of state bond Propositions 57 and 58, which Cruz hopes will be a “shot in the arm” for San Benito County, he said.
As Cruz continues to hash out the county’s business with the current Board, Marcus said he plans on dedicating the next nine months to every issue confronting the county until he takes his own seat on the Board in January 2005.
Nailing a victory in the primaries wasn’t a total surprise for Marcus, who had an optimistic feeling that the hard work he and his campaign committee were doing would pay off, he said.
“I knew I had the support of the county and the support of District 1, which I worked very hard to get,” Marcus said.
The elation over reaching his 50-percent goal isn’t overshadowed by the realization that he still has to prove to the people who didn’t vote for him that he is, in fact, the best man for the job, he said.
Marcus’ victory did come as a surprise to fellow District 1 candidate Grant Brians, who had expected a run-off for the seat, he said.
“I will say that I very much hope that Don will be a good supervisor,” Brians said. “I hope that he changes many of his positions from where he is at today and that he will be a voice of cooperation.”
With eight more months of campaigning until the November election, Botelho said he expects to work twice as hard to secure his own seat on the Board for District 2.
“It’s been a fun campaign, a fair campaign up to this point, and I look forward to continuing that toward November,” he said. “I believe my experience and background is superior to the other candidate, and will bring success in November.”
Kesler’s defeat didn’t come as a shock to Freitas, who had expected a run-off between him and Botelho due to his time spent campaigning door to door and talking with the community, he said.
“A lot of people were telling me they were ready for a change,” he said. “I’ve always like Ruth… I just kind of feel for her. She’s worked hard.”
Continuing to walk precincts and taking a more in-depth look at the pertinent issues surrounding the county will make up much of Freitas’ campaigning.
The fact that both he and Botelho come from deep-rooted San Benito County families will keep the race close and exciting, he said.
Kesler declined comment.
The loss of this election does not mean the end to Brians’ involvement in the community, or his future aspirations to public office, he said.
“Let’s just say that given that I’ve been out there in the public eye for 25 years trying to advocate looking forward to the future, I’m not going away,” he said.
