Kesarwani, Humbert victorious in city council races
Farther south in Alameda, Ashcraft, Daysog and Jensen win mayor, city council races
Final tallies confirm that incumbents and initially projected winners prevailed in all four Berkeley City Council races in the November election.
Without fanfare, incumbent Councilmembers Kate Harrison and Rigel Robinson ran unopposed and will stay in City Hall for another four-year term.
District 1 will continue to be represented by Councilmember
Rashi Kesarwani, and residents in the southeast corner of the city elected Mark Humbert to be their voice.
A majority of Berkeley residents supported a citywide vacancy tax and building 3,000 affordable housing units in the near future, but not enough were persuaded to pass the largest bond measure proposed in city history, which promised to fund an array of housing, infrastructure and climate projects.
Measure L, a massive, $650 million general obligation bond measure, was the largest and most expensive upset in Berkeley.
Though supporters praised setting aside money for a range of different city endeavors, opponents criticized the fact that the bond did not specifically promise where that money would be spent or how it would be divvied up between a wide range of undeveloped project ideas.
District 1
The District 1 council seat was decided in an instant runoff, after Kesarwani was less than 1% shy of securing 50% of first-choice votes.
However, she successfully held onto her slight lead and won the race, earning 53% of the 6,527 final ranked-choice tallies.
It will be Kesarwani's second term representing District 1, which is bounded by the Berkeley Marina, University Avenue and Martin Luther King Jr. Way; she was first elected in 2018.
Elisa Mikiten, an architect and planning commissioner, followed closely behind in second place until final results were counted nearly two weeks after the election.
According to final numbers, 47% of District 1 voters backed Mikiten to represent them.