Villalta wins re-election in Los Banos mayor race
At about 9:45 on Tuesday evening, Los Banos Mayor Mike Villalta grabbed a microphone in Me-N-Ed’s on the west side of the city and gave a victory announcement in his re-election bid.
His preliminary numbers put him ahead with 54.27 percent of the vote compared to challenger and former Mayor Michael Amabile’s 44.92 percent with about 83 percent of the precincts reporting.
“I could not have done it without all the people yelling at me down the street saying, ‘You’ve got this. We got your back,’” Villalta said to his supporters, who packed the pizza parlor from the projector displaying numbers on the back wall to the bar in front. “This is what’s been happening since Day 1, and all of you coming into the shop, and the support you have given me, and tonight coming here, I just don’t know what to say.”
On the east side of town, Amabile and his supporters gathered in a banquet room at Espana’s, the restaurant he owns and runs. One of Amabile’s campaign workers updated numbers on a white board near the door to the kitchen. Early in the night, Amabile was looking at similar numbers.
“What’s surprising to me is the low turnout. I checked the numbers from two years ago and four years ago, and the last off-year election had 5,800 voters,” he said. “They’re telling me this year we have 3,800 and I’m losing by 300. If that’s true, that’s where I’ve lost.”
Villalta has been mayor since taking over for Tommy Jones in 2010, four years after Amabile left office.
Villalta and Amabile faced off in a community candidates forum, hosted by the League of Women Voters, on Oct. 14 at Los Banos City Hall, where both listed job growth as the city’s top priority.
Measure S
The largest margin in the early results in Los Banos was a 63.12 percent vote in favor of Measure S, which will change the Los Banos City Council voting from at-large to districts.
Measure S was spurred by the Community Advocacy Coalition, a group of Los Banos residents who feel the city’s at-large voting system is a violation of the 2001 California Voter Rights Act. The group’s main complaint is that while the city is 68 percent Latino, there has never been a Latino council member since the city incorporated in 1907.
The CAC first threatened the city with a lawsuit, but as the election drew near, the city and the CAC both voiced support for the measure.
City Manager Steve Carrigan said a lawsuit would cost the city $1 million out of its general fund, and districts would be forced on the city anyway. By putting a measure on the ballot, the city was able to pick a map, created by National Demographics Corp., and move to by-district voting on its own terms.
“No city has ever successfully defended a lawsuit,” Carrigan said recently.
The City Council approved the map on July 16. The only council member to voice concern was Elizabeth Stonegrove, who iterated that she is for by-district voting but took issue with the map chosen. Draft Plan 3, as it is known, has three of its districts dip below Highway 152. Currently, the only member of the City Council who lives north of 152 is Villalta.
Measure S requires a simple majority for approval.
In by-district elections, each council member will represent a district of roughly 9,000 constituents, with the mayoral seat remaining under the at-large system. By-district voting would not occur until the 2016 election.
City Council
With early numbers in on Tuesday night, incumbents Tom Faria and Scott Silveira were leading the City Council voting with 32.95 percent and 32.26 percent of the vote, respectively. Challenger Ray Martinez had earned 20 percent, and Refugio Llamas was at 14 percent in the race for the two seats.
School board
Also in early results for Los Banos, school board challenger Marlene Smith was leading over Andree Soares with 55 percent of the vote in Area 3, while incumbents Dennis Areias (Area 1) and John Mueller (Area 7) led by about the same margin.
This story was originally published November 4, 2014 at 11:02 PM with the headline "Villalta wins re-election in Los Banos mayor race."