When all was said and done last night, the two incumbents prevailed over the first-time challenger. From the first report of absentee voters to the final count after 11:30 pm, the order and the margins were pretty stable; as they usually are. Here are the results:
Deal 2,879 36.74% --
Nagel 2,780 35.84% -99
Ortiz 2,177 27.78% -702
This is the first time Terry Nagel has slipped from first place in her three races. She beat Jerry Deal by 352 votes four years ago, so last night represents a 450 vote swing towards Deal. Ricardo Ortiz did quite well for a first-time challenger with a limited budget. He was likely aided by having Measure E on the ballot. It passed by 1% above the two-thirds majority required and drew out school parents. Ortiz' fiscal emphasis also resonated with some voters, but my sense of it is that it will be a longer term "timebomb" story that he will have to build on.
If we assume very little "bullet" voting, we had about a 26% turnout, so three quarters of everyone you run into in the grocery store or at the park cannot complain about things in B'game!
This is just so pathetic to me. There is never really a challenge to the incumbents, so what the hell, what choice do you have but to vote for people who are just keeping a seat warm and flying under the radar. The winners, if I can call them that are definitely in it for the benefits, not for the people. Such a sad state of affairs.
Posted by: alittlebird | November 09, 2011 at 11:22 AM
Well, on the bright side we won't have to pay for another council person's health care for life.
Posted by: sk | November 09, 2011 at 12:05 PM
Aprox 8,000 people voted yesterday.
The City has @30,000 registered voters.
22,000 voters did not vote yeterday.
I guess everything is well and good in The City of Burlingame.
Posted by: holyroller @hotwire.com | November 09, 2011 at 02:21 PM
That is truly sad. I was really hoping for fiscal sanity and a strong "NO" to high speed rail. Let's see how things pan out for 2012.
Posted by: JF | November 09, 2011 at 02:34 PM
Actually, after a bit more digging on the County website, it appears 4,847 ballots were cast. That means there was a substantial number of "bullet" voters casting only one of their two votes. The total population is 28,158 and 19% are under 18. There are about 15,000 registered voters so the turnout was about 32% which is in line with the historical averages.
Posted by: Joe | November 09, 2011 at 08:08 PM
Thank you for running Ortiz, so that those other 2 didn't just walk in. They had to work for it.
Yackety yack will no longer be mayor. Thank Goodness.
Posted by: Two Cents | November 12, 2011 at 01:48 PM