David Couch (apparently) wins again in 4th District
Barring any last-minute surprises such as finding thousands of ballots stuffed in garbage bins, all indications are that David Couch is not only the top vote-getter in the race for 4th District Kern County Supervisor, but he might have won it all on election night.
The latest tally from the Kern County Elections Division shows Couch with 52.6% of the vote followed by challengers Veronica Vasquez with 17.7%, Alex Garcia with 16.7% and Salvador Solorio-Ruiz with 13%. Vasquez and Solorio-Ruiz are current members of the Delano City Council and Garcia is the current mayor of Wasco.
“I’m not taking any victory laps just yet,” Couch said Wednesday. “We don’t know how many ballots are still in the mail and yet to be counted.”
As long as ballots were postmarked by March 5, they can be received up to a week after the election and be counted.
If Couch holds on with at least 50% of the votes cast plus one, he is the winner, and a run-off election in November with the second-highest voter-getter is moot.
So how was Couch apparently able to pull it off again, coming in very strong in a district with a Latino majority population?
In 2016, the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund successfully sued Kern County for diluting the Latino vote. A federal judge later ruled Latinos who would otherwise have voted together were illegally split among multiple districts, meaning they were excluded from selecting the candidate of their choice.
As part of the lawsuit settlement, Kern County supervisors agreed to add a second Latino-majority district, which became District 4. It includes the communities of Lost Hills, Delano, McFarland, Wasco, Shafter, Buttonwillow, McKittrick, Derby Acres, parts of southwest Bakersfield, Lamont and Arvin.
Longtime political observer Mark Salvaggio is not surprised at the results.
“David Couch once again
shows his staying power,” said Salvaggio, who knows Couch very well, as they served together on the Bakersfield City Council for six years. Couch later hired Salvaggio as a field representative after winning his first election in 2013 to the Kern County Board of Supervisors.
Salvaggio credits Couch’s years of experience along with running an effective campaign and having the funds to do it. His opponents simply did not have the funding or gain traction, said Salvaggio.
Did voter turnout play a role here? No, said Salvaggio.
“Whether it was low or high it wouldn’t change the results,” the veteran political observer said. More importantly, Couch won the endorsement of key Latino political figures such as the mayors of Arvin, McFarland, Wasco and Delano and other Latino elected officials.
“It’s disappointing because we know that David Couch has not been the true representative of the district,” said Camila Chavez with the Dolores Huerta Action Fund, which threw its support behind Vasquez. The group was out knocking on doors until the very end of Election Day, encouraging people to vote.
“So many people did not realize there was an election. They would say, ‘Oh, is that today?’ Many told us they had not received a ballot,” Chavez said.
Her colleague, Cecilia Castro, sees things a little differently. It was a poor strategy, she said, to have three Latino candidates running against Couch. The three candidates wound up splitting the vote, handing a victory to Couch.
“Within our political party we need to develop stronger political strategy and be aligned on how we’re going to be able to take that (4th district) seat,” Castro said.
To quote that great philosopher Yogi Berra, “It’s like déjà vu all over again.” In 2018, then-Delano Mayor Grace Vallejo was supported by a coalition of folks to run against Couch. Lamont resident and businessman Jose Gonzalez later announced his bid. Couch beat them both as some blamed Gonzalez for taking votes away from Vallejo. Chavez and Castro said the latest results show the need for continued voter registration and education across Kern County.
Challengers Solorio-Ruiz and Garcia aren’t conceding anything just yet.
“I think it’s too early to make any comments, there’s more votes to be counted than those that have been counted,” Garcia said.
Solorio-Ruiz wrote in a text message: “While we await the final results within the next few days or weeks, we are proud of the campaign we ran focused on building community and capacity. No one can take away the meaningful conversations we had with residents in district four.”
Vasquez did not respond to a request for comment.
It will still take a while for the Kern County Elections Division to declare an official winner, but for now Couch is cautiously optimistic.
“I guess my reaction is I’d rather be ahead than behind. And I am pleased that the voters in the Fourth District seem to appreciate the work that my staff and I are doing,” Couch said. “I’m looking forward to another four years representing them.”