Three Modesto council races remain tight with thousands of votes left to count
Candidates running for three Modesto council seats were in close races based on early returns as of 10:36 p.m. Tuesday, with many more votes remaining to be counted.
In Council District 1 in northwest Modesto, city planning commissioner Rosa Escutia-Braaton was leading among four candidates with 41.4 percent of the votes. Jennifer Hidalgo, a field representative for state Sen. Anna Caballero, was in second place with 35.3 percent of the vote. About 550 votes separated the two among the more than 8,800 votes counted so far.
Former Councilman John Gunderson was in third place with 13.6 percent of the vote, and Amin Vohra, CEO of Advanced College and a planning commissioner, was in fourth place with 9.8 percent of the vote.
In Council District 3 in central Modesto, events promoter Chris Ricci had a narrow lead over former Councilwoman Janice Keating, while pastor Jim Applegate was in third place.
(See updated Stanislaus County results of all races)
Ricci had 36.3 percent of the vote compared to 34.9 percent for Keating, with about 140 votes separating them out of the more than 10,100 counted so far. Applegate, pastor of vision and preaching at Redeemer Modesto, had 28.9 percent of the vote.
Ricci and Keating offered voters stark differences. Ricci is a progressive Democrat who wants Modesto to try all kinds of new approaches to deal with the pandemic as well as the homelessness and affordable housing crises. Keating is a bookkeeper and tax preparer and Republican. She wants the city to gets its fiscal house in order and focus on basics, such as hiring more police officers.
In Council District 6 in northeast Modesto, David Wright, owner of Wright Insurance Agency and a former council candidate, was leading among four candidates, with 41.3 percent of the vote. Political newcomer Jessica Gonzalez, an office manager in her family’s auto repair business, was in second place with 34.6 percent.
About 700 votes separated the two out of the more than 10,200 counted so far, and Wright’s lead grew slightly as the vote count was updated Tuesday.
Kelsten Obert, the owner of Knock-Out Landscape Services was in third place with 12.1 percent, and Hunter Sauls, an Army veteran, college student and employee of his family’s Willey Printing Co., was in fourth place with 12 percent of the vote.
Whoever receives the most votes in a council race wins. A candidate does not need the majority of the vote to be victorious. None of the incumbents in the three districts ran for re-election.
This story was originally published November 3, 2020 at 9:48 PM.
