Barnes leads, Hauck and Pierce battle for second
It appears Sutter County voters decided to take the sheriff’s race to a runoff election in November.
The race was consistently led by Brandon Barnes Tuesday night, though he hadn’t pulled up the 50 percent plus one needed to avoid a run-off. It remained a fight for second place between Dennis Hauck and Jeff Pierce.
As of 11:20 p.m. Tuesday, Yuba City Police Sgt. Hauck was in second place with 3,180 votes, or 30.96 percent. Jeff Pierce, the current undersheriff, came in third with 3,025 votes, or 29.45 percent. That’s a 155-vote difference and though all 50 precincts reported, the Sutter County Elections Office will still have some vote-by-mail ballots to tally.
Barnes, Yuba County Jail commander, had received 4,067 votes, or 39.59 percent.
“I think we’re feeling good, we’re feeling optimistic,” Barnes said Tuesday. “We’ll continue to see how the numbers roll in... I’m very humbled by everybody’s support so far, and I’m looking forward to seeing how the final numbers tally up.”
After the second update around 9:45 p.m., Hauck said he felt confident that his lead over third place would grow and would tighten up on first place.
“You may see me struggle, but you’ll never see me give up,” Hauck said. “I appreciate all the support from the community and I’m going to keep working to become the next Sutter County Sheriff.”
After the second vote update, Pierce said he wished he had brought in more votes, but he wasn’t giving up just yet.
“I’m just glad I ran a clean, ethical campaign and I think I took the high road,” Pierce said. “There were ups and downs emotionally. You can only do your best, it’s in the voters’ hands. I wouldn’t change a thing.”
– Rachel Rosenbaum Manveer Dhillon helps Baljeet Kaur with her ballot at the Sutter County Veterans Memorial Building on Tuesday in Yuba City.
Bal Dhillon, held a slight lead over challenger Tom Reusser, as of deadline for this report. A second challenger, Joe Hendrix was a distant third.
As of late Tuesday night, it looked like a run-off in the General Election for Dhillon and Reuser.
As of deadline, Dhillon was leading with 45.09 percent of votes in the county, Reusser was at 40.03 percent and Hendrix had 14.89 percent.
“I think the difference, again, goes back to my experience, my education,” Dhillon said. “With me being in the job, I know what needs to be done and we have a vision and we are going there.”
Dhillon was appointed to the position to finish out the term of Bill Cornelius, who retired mid-term. Before that she was the superintendent for the Cascade Union Elementary School District and was the principal and director of human resources for Plumas Lake Elementary School.
Reusser has served as the principal of River Valley High School, assistant principal of Gary Avenue Middle School and superintendent and principal of Winship/robbins Elementary School District.
Unless Dhillon tallied more than 50 percent of the votes, there will be a runoff.
“If we have to go to a runoff then we have to go to a runoff,” Dhillon said. “I’m in it for the long haul. Our students deserve the best.” – Ruby Larson Kathy Vrablick of Yuba County smiles with precinct workers after casting her ballot at the Yuba County Government Center on Tuesday in Marysville. Charlotte Reese casts her ballot at the Sutter County Clerk-recorder-registrar of Voters office on Tuesday in Yuba City.
was leading the race for Yuba County sheriff, as of midnight, with 76 percent of the vote – or 2,944 votes. His opponent, Teng Saechao, had 23 percent of the votes.
There was a total of 3,851 votes processed at the time of the deadline for this story, or just 6 of 33 precincts reporting.
“I’ll be honest, I don’t think it has sunk in totally yet. I’m still watching the numbers,” Anderson said late Tuesday night. “The support I’ve had has been very humbling. I’m optimistic, as well as pessimistic, so I’m just waiting for more of the numbers to come in, but I’m ready to roll up my sleeves and get to work.”
Anderson said he was overwhelmed by the support he received from both the men and women he works with, as well as the men and women of Yuba County.
Saechao did not respond for comment Tuesday night.
– Jake Abbott
he said. “I think those are important qualities for an assessor to have, to listen to people.”
He said he was thankful to those who helped him with his first campaign and to the voters.
“I just want to let everyone know that my door will be open if they want to come in and talk to me. We’re going to transparent and open to the public and if they want to come in and talk to me they can.”
“We worked really hard, I couldn’t’ have done this by myself.”
Duckels faced off against Steve Souza, a Loma Rica resident and Ernie Thompson, a Wheatland resident. Souza had secured 29.34 percent of the vote and Thompson garnered 16.77 percent as of the print deadline.
– Patrick Groves