Candidate declares victory in race for westside seat on Merced Board of Supervisors

A Merced County candidate has declared victory in the race for the Westside's supervisors office.

Dairyman Scott Silveira said he's "confident" he has claimed the Merced County District 5 Supervisor race with more than 60 percent of the vote. He said he's "excited" about digging into the county's inner workings and figuring out how to "get out of the way" of Merced County business.

The leading candidates for that race and the Merced County Superintendent of Schools contest have held onto their leads since Election Day, according to numbers released Monday by the Merced County Registrar's Office.

The separation in the District 5 race is the most significant of the undecided races.

Silveira has more than 60.7 percent of the vote for District 5, which covers Los Banos, Dos Palos, Gustine and Santa Nella. That's compared to the 20 percent for second place finisher Patricia Ramos Anderson, the director of the Santa Nella County Water District who also retired from the city of San Jose.

More than 2,600 votes come between Silveira and Ramos Anderson. The challenger has not yet publicly conceded the race.

Any new job comes with a learning curve, Silviera said, so he looks to use the next six months before he takes office to better understand the county's budget and process.

One of his goals is to better unite the east and west sides of Merced County, he said, adding an "invisible wall" along the San Joaquin River hinders progress.

"It's just making sure we're all equals here," he said. "When we're striving to bring up the Westside, we bring up the whole county. I'm big on making investments into our future."

Silveira far outpaced his three competitors in campaign contributions, pulling in three times the amount of any other candidate, according to county records.

The other two candidates in District 5, business owner Richard De La Paz Jr. and law clerk Lea Hernandez Holguin, had 15 percent and 5 percent, respectively.

The distance between county Superintendent Steve Tietjen and Merced River District Superintendent Richard Lopez has increased in the past two weeks. About 2,000 votes separate Tietjen (53.5 percent) from Lopez (46.3 percent), according to the unofficial count.

Fifty percent plus one vote is needed to win the race.

Incumbent Merced County District Attorney Larry Morse II conceded his race to first-time challenger Kimberly Helms Lewis, a veteran government attorney and prosecutor. Helms Lewis continued to coast with 66.1 percent past Morse's tally of 33.8 percent, a difference of more than 9,200 votes.

The registrar's office is required to certify the election by July 5, according to registrar Barbara Levey.

"We hope to update results for all remaining ballots cast (including provisional) on Friday," she said in a news release.

This story was originally published June 18, 2018 at 5:10 PM with the headline "Candidate declares victory in race for westside seat on Merced Board of Supervisors."