Lopez wins Modesto runoff

Dave Lopez defeated Robert Farrace on Tuesday in a runoff election for an open Modesto City Council seat, giving Lopez his first victory in five tries for office.

"I'm completely blown away," said Lopez, 41, an account manager at Alpha Numeric, a copy machine company.

He pulled in 9,789 votes against Farrace's 8,454. Some votes remain to be counted, but it's unlikely they'll sway the results.

Farrace, an attorney and first-time candidate, congratulated Lopez on his campaign.

"I ran my race because I wanted to see Modesto improve," Farrace, 44, said after the votes were announced. "I certainly hope with the faith people put in (Lopez), that he will accomplish what we both set out to do."

Lopez first ran for a council seat in 1999, squaring off against five others in a campaign won by Bruce Frohman. Lopez lost to Janice Keating in 2001, Bob Dunbar in 2003 and Will O'Bryant in 2005.

The seat Lopez won belonged to Dunbar, who chose not to seek re-election.

Lopez sounded as if he was in disbelief when he heard the returns. His wife interrupted the call to give him a victory kiss.

"I'm excited," he said. "I didn't want to get ex- cited, because I've lost so many times.

"I just want to tell the voters I'm ready to get to work and getting to the business of the city," he said.

Lopez is the second Latino to win a City Council race in Modesto's history. The first, Balvino Irizarry, served from 1987 to 1991.

"I'm glad I don't have that title anymore," Irizarry said, referring to being the only elected La-tino councilman in the city's past. "I think it should be passed on to more people."

Irizarry and Lopez did not agree on one key issue for Modesto's Latino voters: district elections.

Irizarry, president of the Hispanic Leadership Council, favors them as a means to even the playing field for minority candidates or first-time office seekers; Lopez opposes them, saying they divide the city. Modesto voters will see a ballot measure that would implement district campaigns in February.

Lopez said his five campaigns helped bring him to nearly all of Modesto's neighborhoods.

"I ran five times, so I believe I've actually gone out and shaken every hand in town, or a lot of them."

Lopez and Farrace won places in the runoff by picking up more votes Nov. 6 than two other candidates, community activist Robert Stanford and electrician Brent Maynor. Stanford and Maynor backed Farrace in the runoff.

Farrace raised the most money in the group, collecting $24,403 by the end of November. He also won endorsements from Modesto's firefighter union and Dunbar.

Lopez kept his expenses less than $1,000 before the November vote. He raised more than $3,200 for the runoff.

In their campaigns, both men emphasized protecting public safety resources and fixing roads. Lopez said he would try to carry a measure calling for a half-cent sales tax increase to fix the city's roads, provided the measure includes a sunset clause after six years.

City Clerk Jean Morris has three boxes of votes left to count. She expects to tally them by noon today.

Those ballots were dropped off at three locations Tuesday. The rest of the ballots were sent by mail or were delivered to Morris' office before then.

So far, the 18,243 ballots Morris has counted outnumber the 17,867 that were cast for the same race a month ago.

Bee staff writer Adam Ashton can be reached ataashton@modbee.com or 578-2366.

This story was originally published December 12, 2007 at 3:07 AM with the headline "Lopez wins Modesto runoff."