Two local races leaning toward Valadao, Shepard

While Democrats in the U.S. Congressional 22nd District and the State Senate 16th District, which both include Porterville, have a voter registration advantage, those districts were leaning toward the Republican candidates as of Wednesday.

Those districts were considered to be highly competitive as Democrats in the districts tend to vote more conservative. That’s proving to be the case so far as Republican David Valadao leads Democrat Rudy Salas in the race to represent the 22nd district in the House of Representatives and Porterville farmer David Shepard, a Republican, is leading Democrat Melissa Hurtado in the State Senate 16th District race.

100 percent of the precincts in both races have partially reported results in Tuesday’s election. Results will change throughout the canvass period, which is now ongoing, as vote-by-mail ballots, provisional ballots, including conditional voter registration provisional ballots and other ballots are counted.

As of Tuesday morning with 31 percent of the votes reported, Valadao had received 54 percent of the votes, 23,034 votes, while Salas had received 46 percent of the vote, 19,648 votes.

Democrats have a 13-percent point voter registration advantage in the State Senate 16th District. But as of Tuesday morning Shepard had received 52.6 percent of the vote, 33,620 votes, to 47.4 percent, 30,263 votes, for Hurtado.

Hurtado currently represents Porterville in the State Senate in District 14. But after redistrict she’s running to continue to represent Porterville in District 16.

As expected Devon Mathis is on his way to a convincing win to continue to represent Porterville in the 33rd District in the State Assembly. As of Tuesday morning, Mathis, a Republican, had received 63.1 percent of the vote, 31,541 votes. His challenger, Democratic Tulare city councilman Jose Sigala had received 36.9 percent of the vote, 18,484 votes.

“Thank you for all your support, it’s a team effort,” Mathis posted on his Facebook page. “I’m blessed to have an amazing family, friends and a great team. It’s truly humbling, I’m thankful for the honor to continue serving.”

And as expected Republican Kevin Mccarthy defeated Democratic challenger Marisa Wood to represent the 20th district in the U.S. House of Representatives. Mccarthy currently represents Porterville in the 23rd district.

But after redistricting Mccarthy will no longer represent Porterville but will continue to represent Springville and the Sequoia National Forest area in the 20th district. Valadao currently represents the 21st district in the House.

It’s expected Republicans will take control of the House and it’s expected Mccarthy will become the Speaker of the House as a result. But the ultimate outcome as far Republicans taking control of the House was still hanging in the balance on Tuesday.

Here’s a roundup of results from other key local races on Tuesday:

CITY COUNCIL

Greg Meister and Raymond Beltran are set to represent their districts on the Porterville City Council after the results came in on Tuesday. Meister was on his way to a convincing win over Jason Gurrola to replace outgoing city councilman Milt Stowe to represent District 2. Meanwhile in district 1, Beltran was on his way to a convincing win over incumbent Lawana Tate.

SCHOOL BOARDS

Incumbents Pete Lara and Felipe Martinez were set to return to the Porterville Unified School District Board. Lara was on his way to a convincing win against challenger Cheryl Mccrillis to continue to represent area 3 while Martinez was likewise on his way to a convincing win against challenger Rae Dean Strawn to continue to represent area 5.

In the Burton School District it looked like incumbent Daniel Figueroa was going to return to the board to represent area 4. Figueroa had received 37 more votes than challenger Shelbie Akin. Figueroa received 54 percent of the vote, 245 votes, while Akin received 46 percent of the vote, 208 votes.

Dawn Crater will represent area 1 on the Burton board. Crater received 56.6 percent of the vote, 219 votes, while Eddie Hernandez, who had announced he was resigning from the board and had given Crater his blessing, received 43.4 percent of the vote, 168 votes.

SIERRA VIEW

In the race to represent area 5 on the Sierra View District Board, which oversees Sierra View Medical Center, it looked like Areli Martinez was on her way to taking that spot on the board.

Martinez had received 36.77 percent of the vote, 866 votes, beating out the other candidates, Donna Berry (30.5 percent, 718 votes), Richard Eckhoff (25.9 percent, 610 votes) and Robin Gilman (6.84 percent, 161 votes).