Atwater mayor says he’ll challenge incumbent Merced County Supervisor for District 3 seat
Atwater Mayor Paul Creighton said he has led the city out of its dire financial situation, making him the right person to be the next Merced County supervisor for District 3.
He announced his intention to run for that office on Wednesday. Creighton would face incumbent Supervisor Daron McDaniel, who first won the seat in 2014 and ran unopposed in 2018.
The first-term mayor said he’s dealt with issues in Atwater that have prepared to him to run District 3, which is made up mostly by Atwater but includes McSwain, Franklin-Beachwood and a sliver of Merced.
“We just got a lot of big things going on in Atwater,” Creighton said on Wednesday. “I just want to extend that to the District 3 area.”
Creighton’s term as mayor ends at the end of 2022, when the final race for the supervisor seat could be on the ballot, assuming there is not an outright primary winner. Creighton said he’s after the supervisor seat and will not seek re-election as mayor.
“A lot of issues that we have in Merced County and District 3, I’m familiar with,” he said. “I want to be a team player and work as a team with the other supervisors to get things done in Merced County.”
Creighton pointed to Atwater’s recent emergence from years of debt and his role in that process. The city was some $4 million in debt going back to 2012 and came up to the edge of bankruptcy, before Creighton and others joined the City Council.
He said he could bring that knowledge to aid the county, which reported a $4.6 million shortfall this year that’s projected between the budget’s revenues and expenditures. It was the second budget hurt by the coronavirus pandemic.
The city of Atwater has also moved to modernize its police force with new cruisers, firearms, records systems and radios. The council recently decided to purchase two buildings in downtown along Broadway Avenue, where many city offices will move, leaving City Hall and its offices to the police department.
Creighton said he will also bring that kind of mentality to running the county, where public safety will be a priority.
The city of Atwater saw controversy in April when a woman accused Creighton of racist treatment of a fruit vendor. Creighton brushed the incident off, saying people who accused him of racism were mostly from outside of town.
“That was all false what I was accused of,” he said Wednesday. “People know I work hard for everybody.”
Creighton said as supervisor he would also have a focus on regional transportation plans, which include the Atwater-Merced Expressway and Altamont Corridor Express train. He said Atwater needs an assist to connect Bellevue Road to Highway 99 and McSwain could benefit from congestion projects.
Then there’s the Castle Commerce Center, which has room to fill, he said. “I want to collaborate with the other supervisors to capitalize on untapped potential,” he said.
As for McDaniel, he seemed to take the news of his challenger in stride Wednesday.
“I look forward to my re-election campaign and talking about the results I have achieved for my district and Merced County as a whole,” McDaniel said Wednesday in a statement. “I look forward to a campaign where voters can choose and vote freely in the greatest democracy in the world.”
“At the end of the day I’m sure the voters of supervisorial District 3 will choose results over rhetoric, leadership over finger pointing.”
The California primary in June 7, 2022. If no candidate wins outright with more than 50% of the votes, the top two vote-getters would face off in November that year.
This story was originally published July 8, 2021 at 5:00 AM.
