Downtown businessman held 104-vote lead
Jerry Muenzer is holding his breath, but all indications suggest
he’s headed toward winning the seat for District 4 supervisor.
Muenzer had a 104-vote lead over Phil Fortino with about 3,200
ballots left to be counted by the elections office as of Wednesday,
according to unofficial results and the county clerk.
The two businessmen are vying to succeed Supervisor Reb Monaco
in representing the southern San Benito County district.
Downtown businessman held 104-vote lead
Jerry Muenzer is holding his breath, but all indications suggest he’s headed toward winning the seat for District 4 supervisor.
Muenzer had a 104-vote lead over Phil Fortino with about 3,200 ballots left to be counted by the elections office as of Wednesday, according to unofficial results and the county clerk.
The two businessmen are vying to succeed Supervisor Reb Monaco in representing the southern San Benito County district.
With all precincts reporting, and just the remaining provisional and absentee ballots left for counting, Muenzer had gained 1,733 votes to 1,629 for Fortino, according to the results. Muenzer had 51.4 percent of the vote to 48.3 percent for Fortino.
Head elections official Joe Paul Gonzalez noted how the office planned to have the remaining 2,800 absentees and 450 to 500 provisional ballots counted by sometime early next week. There were a total of 12,489 votes cast by the end of Election Day, according to the unofficial figures.
Muenzer said he was “real thrilled with the results.”
“Everybody is telling me that the lead should hold,” Muenzer said. “I’m holding my breath right now and I’ll let the air out when it’s certified.”
Muenzer’s lead after earlier results were released – made up of absentee ballots – shrank considerably.
After counting of those vote-by-mail ballots, he was ahead with 54 percent of the vote, or 1,144 votes. Fortino had 45.8 percent of the vote, or 971 votes.
During the primary, held June 8, Fortino received 44.1 percent of the vote to Muenzer’s 40.1 percent. That was a 129-vote difference, while there were more than 500 votes that went to Monaco and write-in residents during the primary.
Despite how the results turn out once the election is certified – and the lead appears likely insurmountable – Muenzer said both candidates can be proud of the “clean race” they ran. He noted how he and Fortino attended a forum Thursday and afterward they shared thoughts about the campaigns.
“When it was over we shook hands and just basically told each other we can be proud we had run a very clean race,” Muenzer said, adding how he and Fortino had a similar conversation Wednesday morning after the election.
He concluded: “I’m hoping the lead can hold and I’m ready to get to work in January.
The close outcome also reflects the similar pro-business messages, and backgrounds, from the two candidates.
Muenzer has been president of Muenzer’s Cyclery and Sports Center for the past 20 years. Fortino spent 30 years running his family’s home furniture store before it closed in 2008.
During the campaign, he talked about such ideas as fixing old ordinances that prevent reasonable business growth, doing a better job of marketing the county, concentrating on agricultural sustainability and focusing on public safety. He also touted his eight years of experience as a Tres Pinos school board member and his experience in balancing budgets.
Fortino, longtime owner of the former furniture store, campaigned with such ideas as creating an economic vitality task force comprised of elected officials, improving assistance of employers through the application process, removing roadblocks for businesses, and promoting wineries and tourism.
Fortino could not be reached for comment before publication.
