County posts final election results

EL CENTRO — The Imperial County Registrar of Voters Monday posted the final results of the June 5 election, and in the end there were no real surprises relative to previous counts.

The closest race this spring — that for Imperial Irrigation District Division 3 Director — was the only one that looked like it could go either way, but incumbent James Hanks held onto his lead throughout and edged challenger Raul Navarro by 41 votes.

Meanwhile, Division 5 Director Norma Sierra Galindo finished 461 votes ahead of her nearest challenger, Carlos Zaragoza, but because she received less than 50 percent of the vote (37.52 percent), she and Zaragoza will face each other again in a Nov. 6 run-off.

Possibly the most passionate IID race, that for the District 1 seat currently occupied by Juanita Salas, ultimately wasn’t that close, as El Centro Councilman Alex Cardenas defeated the incumbent handily, with 54.57 percent of the vote.

In other races:

• District Attorney Gilbert Otero held onto his job against El Centro Councilman Edgard Garcia with 55.84 percent of the vote.

• County Auditor/Controller Douglas Newland lost his job to El Centro CPA Josue “Josh” Mercado. The latter defeated the incumbent easily with 55.83 percent of the vote.

• District 1 Supervisor, incumbent John Renison is headed for a run-off against Calexico Councilman Jesus Eduardo Escobar.

• Judge Juan Ulloa easily outdistanced his two challengers, Robert Espinosa and Steve Escalera, to hold onto Imperial County Superior Court Seat 1.

• Local attorneys Monica Lepe-Negrete and Tom Storey will be squaring off again in November for a run-off for Superior Court Seat 3. Lepe-Negrete finished 493 votes ahead of Storey but finished almost 10 percentage points below the threshold necessary to win the election outright.

Among the scrum of gubernatorial candidates in the June 5 primary, former Los Angeles mayor Antonio Villaraigosa won Imperial County with 31.12 percent of the vote, while the frontrunner, Lt. Gov. Grant Newsom, finished a distant third with 12.15 percent of the county vote. Statewide, however, the running order was reversed, and Newsom will be facing San Diego businessman John H. Cox in November.

Newsom is heavily favored to defeat his Republican opponent. In the weeks leading up to the June 5 vote, there had some speculation among analysts whether he would face a stiffer challenge against fellow Democrat Villaraigosa in a general election.