Brandvold rolls to apparent crushing defeat of Marsh in Modesto mayor’s race

Modesto has a new leader, with political newcomer Ted Brandvold routing incumbent Garrad Marsh on Tuesday night in the mayoral runoff election.

The Stanislaus County election office reported Brandvold had received 13,602 votes, or 59 percent, while Marsh had received 9,621 votes, or 41 percent, in the runoff.

The election office will release an update Friday, but Marsh conceded moments after Tuesday’s results.

“I’m disappointed,” he said. “Modesto will be OK with Ted.” Marsh added that he would call Brandvold to congratulate him.

Brandvold also expected Tuesday’s results to hold up.

“It’s clear that voters wanted change in the government and a new direction in the city,” he said.

The two were among five mayoral candidates in the Nov. 3 election. Marsh was the top candidate, with 39 percent of the vote. Brandvold was second with 30 percent. The two were in the runoff because no one received more than 50 percent of the vote.

Brandvold, 56, is an architect who owns Commercial Architecture and is a former city planning commissioner. He was a newcomer to electoral politics and entered the mayor’s race Aug. 7, the last day he could. But he had some important supporters, including Modesto land-use attorney George Petrulakis, the Chamber of Commerce, and the Modesto Police Officers and Modesto City Fire Fighters associations. The two public safety unions supported Marsh in his last campaign for mayor.

Brandvold has said his campaign tapped into the discontent voters feel about the city and their distrust of City Hall. He has said voters are concerned that the city is economically stagnant and has not done enough to address crime, homelessness and other quality-of-life issues. He campaigned as collaborator and consensus-builder in solving the city’s problems.

His inexperience as a candidate showed at times, and he also faced questions about his independence. Marsh sent out a campaign mailer saying power brokers were behind Brandvold’s campaign. Brandvold denied those claims and has said he would be independent as mayor and represent the entire city.

Marsh, 67, owns McHenry Bowl and was elected mayor in a 2012 runoff election after serving eight years on the City Council. He ran on a campaign of providing the city with leadership during difficult economic times, putting the city’s financial house in order and setting the stage for future prosperity for the city.

He has said that during his time as mayor the city has forged better relationships with key partners, such as the Modesto Irrigation District and Modesto City Schools, and undertaken smart reforms, such as having employees pay more for their pensions and developing long-term financial forecasting tools.

But he also faced questions about his leadership style, that he kept his own counsel too much of the time and did not listen to others before launching major policy initiatives. He led the efforts to put sales tax increases on the November 2013 and 2015 ballots only to have voters reject them.

He was part of a council that ignited a firestorm of criticism two years ago when it included Wood Colony – the close-knit farming community west of Highway 99 – in the city’s long-term growth plans despite hundreds of colony residents and their supporters asking the city to leave the colony out of the plans.

The runoff was conducted by mail, with ballots going out a month ago and voting ending Tuesday night. The election office released the results of the ballots it had received through Friday. It will update the count this Friday with the ballots it received Monday and Tuesday as well as ballots with a Feb. 2 or earlier postmark, as long as the office receives them no later than this Friday.

The office declined to provide an estimate on how many ballots remain to be counted. But Marsh estimated there could be a couple thousand ballots remaining.

This story was originally published February 2, 2016 at 8:43 PM with the headline "Brandvold rolls to apparent crushing defeat of Marsh in Modesto mayor’s race."