Retired Vacaville police chief wins mayoral race
(Image courteys C-SPAN; Solano NewsNet file photo)
Retired Vacaville Police Chief John Carli will serve as the city’s new mayor, Solano NewsNet projected Tuesday evening.
Carli announced his mayoral campaign last July, more than a year after he ended his lengthy tenure as Vacaville’s top law enforcement official.
The former police chief grabbed nearly half of the votes cast by mail leading up to Election day, and received a sizable bump to over 48 percent of the vote as of Tuesday evening.
Carli’s challenger, city council member Jason Roberts, received over 37 percent of the vote in Vacaville, according to county data released around 9 p.m.
Fairfield Mayoral Race
The mayoral race in Fairfield is still too close to call, with incumbent mayor Harry T. Price and council member Catherine Moy nearly even.
According to preliminary data released by the county, Price had a 300-vote lead over Moy as of 9 p.m., but ballots cast in-person on Tuesday have yet to be reported.
House of Representatives
Both incumbent congressmen serving Solano County are projected to retain their seats in the House of Representatives, though they will do so in different districts starting in January.
Congressman John Garamendi will serve in the newly-redrawn District 8. His representation will include Vallejo and Benicia, but not Vacaville or Dixon.
Instead, Vacaville and Dixon will now fall within District 4, where Representative Mike Thompson has been elected to serve. Thompson previously represented Vallejo and Benicia in the 5th Congressional District.
Measure E Too Close to Call
Solano County voters appear poised to strike down Measure E, which would have raised the county’s sales tax.
The measure was backed by county officials as a way to raise millions of dollars for wildfire-prevention initiatives, though the money would have gone into the county’s general fund.
Officials said money collected from Measure E would have been regularly audited, but there did not appear to be anything preventing those funds from being reallocated to other initiatives, according to a review of the proposal by Solano NewsNet.
Solano County mailed a flier to voters in favor of Measure E that was filled with photos of a wildfire that occurred in the Santa Rosa area years ago. The flier made the case for Measure E by claiming the recent LNU Lightning Complex wildfire revealed problems in the county’s ability to respond to large fire events, though the county’s civil grand jury had long warned that first responders were not adequately prepared for a large-scale wildfire emergency.
As of 9 p.m., data showed only 48 percent of voters cast their ballot in favor of Measure E.
Benicia Voters Approve Measure K
Voters in Benicia overwhelmingly approved Measure K, which restricts development beyond the city’s urban growth boundary without voter approval.
The vote means the hill around Lake Herman will remain undeveloped for another two decades, unless voters approve specific development plans before then.
As of 9 p.m., the vote in favor of Measure K was 83.6 percent, according to preliminary data released by the county.
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