Cardenas leads Salas in IID race

In what has been the most hotly contested race in the entire ballot, El Centro Councilmember Alex Cardenas appeared to have the upper hand on incumbent Juanita Salas for the Division 1 seat in the Imperial Irrigation District Board of Directors.

As of press time, Cardenas led the race with 624 votes (54.83 percent) compared to Salas’ 514 votes (45.17 percent) which is a thin 90-vote difference between the two candidates, with more than 84 percent of the precincts counted.

The results are unofficial, and it’s expected the County Elections Department will finalize official results in coming weeks.

“The race is pretty close right now. We’re still waiting for the next update. We’re excited to be up at this point,” Cardenas said on Tuesday night. “We put out a pretty good campaign team, but it’s not over until all the precincts have been reported.”

The race was the most closely watched of the bunch due to the shots fired between the candidates and their supporters throughout the election season.

The climax of the controversy of the race came during the candidate’s form which took place May 19.

There, both candidates expressed opposing views on some of the biggest IID issues and made personal allegations against one another.

During that forum, Cardenas was vocal about his support for the IID board’s decision to appeal the ruling made by an Imperial County Superior Court judge regarding a water allocation plan.

Salas questioned how much Cardenas knew about the lawsuit. She said the big reason she has opposed the appeal is to avoid continuing to spend money on litigation rather than to find common ground.

Despite all of the comments made during the campaign, Cardenas took time to thank all the voters who supported him, his campaign team and the incumbent Salas.

“I want to thank my campaign team and to all of those who came out to support us, I also want to thank Juanita Salas for her service and for making this a very competitive race. I wish her the best,” he said.

If Cardenas retains the lead by the time the results are verified, he will step into his new role in December after Salas’ term expires.

Last year, Salas was elected to the board after winning a special election to replace her predecessor, Matt Dessert, who left the board to become the Imperial County Air Pollution Control Officer in January 2017.