Madueño's late surge puts her in Riverbank mayor lead

Dave White a distant third in contentious Riverbank mayor's race

By Kevin Valine - kvaline@modbee.com

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RIVERBANK — Former Councilwoman Virginia Madueño was leading Tuesday night in the six-way race for mayor.

She had 724 votes, or 39.87 percent, with all 17 precincts reporting as of 11:03 p.m. Grocery store manager Richard O'Brien was a close second with 669 votes, or 36.84 percent.

Councilman Dave White was in third place with 244 votes, or 13.44 percent. The three remaining candidates — Mark Ensley, Larry King and Paul Gutierrez — had a combined 175 votes, or 9.64 percent.

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"I am so extremely humbled and grateful," said Madueño, who failed in her first bid for mayor in November 2008. "I couldn't have done this myself. I had an incredible team of family, friends and supporters. I want to do right by them, by the citizens and voters."

The county still had several thousand uncounted ballots as of 11:03 p.m., according to Riverbank City Clerk Linda Abid-Cummings. It was not clear how many were for the mayor's race.

About an hour earlier when O'Brien appeared to be in the lead, White, 70, said he called and congratulated O'Brien.

"My philosophy at the start of this was anyone but Virginia," said White, who has served on the council for 18 of the past 25 years. "O'Brien — I have no problem working with him."

White, who took several personal swipes at Madueño during the campaign, will keep his council seat. It's been a turbulent political year for White. A group tried to recall him and his grandson and fellow councilman, Jesse James White. It accused them of not being fit to serve, but it failed to gather enough signatures to put the recall before voters.

The City Council has been down to four members since its last mayor resigned in May to take a job out of the area.

O'Brien is a retired Navy commander who manages one of his family's three grocery stores. He was making his first run for office and raised a fraction of the campaign cash that Madueño and White raised.

As of Oct. 17 — the last reporting deadline — O'Brien had raised $3,375. White had contributed $10,000 to his campaign and Madueño had raised more than $14,000. Her total includes $1,300 she loaned to her campaign. White has said he expected to spend $15,000 of his own money to become mayor.

But O'Brien comes from a prominent local family. His nephew Bill is a former Riverbank mayor and now serves on the county Board of Supervisors. His brother Chuck founded the O'Brien's grocery chain.

He has said he decided to run because he was frustrated with what he saw as a lack of accountability and efficiency at City Hall. For instance, he said in a September interview, that it once took the city six months to send his wife a business license for her embroidery business.

Bee staff writer Kevin Valine can be reached at kvaline@modbee.com or 578-2316.