Calaveras Elections: Callaway in runoff; Spellman loses

Callaway in runoff for District 3 seat; Spellman loses

By Dana M. Nichols | Posted: Friday, June 6, 2014 6:00 am/ Calaveras Enterprise

Calaveras County voters will have a number of candidates to consider on the November ballot, but Supervisor Darren Spellman won’t be one of them.

Spellman, who currently represents District 5 – generally the Rancho Calaveras and Jenny Lind areas – came in third in the four-way contest in Tuesday’s primary, according to unofficial results. The top two finishers – only one vote apart – were Steven Kearney with 30.14 percent and Marti Crane with 30.08 percent. Spellman had 22.47 percent and firefighter Roy Estakhri was in fourth with 17 percent.

Under election rules, candidates can win local offices in the primary if they have a majority of votes cast. Otherwise, the top two finishers go on to face off in November. In District 5, that will be Kearney and Crane.

A total of 10,493 ballots were counted by Tuesday night in Calaveras County. That represents a voter turnout for the county of 38.49 percent.

County Elections Coordi-nator Rebecca Turner Wednesday said that about 2,100 ballots remain to be counted. Most are vote-by-mail ballots turned in on Election Day, which require individual signature checks before they can be counted. It appeared unlikely those ballots would change the result in most local races.

In an email sent the day after the election, Spellman said he was grateful to have had the opportunity to serve as a county supervisor.

“Well I can check that one off of my bucket list and have a lifetime’s worth of cocktail party stories I will surely be telling for the next 30 years or so,” Spellman wrote.

Voters Tuesday also decided to send two candidates on to the November ballot in each of three other local races: two judgeships in Calaveras Superior Court and the District 3 seat on the Board of Supervisors.

In District 3, generally the Arnold and Murphys areas on upper Highway 4, incumbent Merita Callaway came in first in unofficial returns with 39.38 percent of the vote. She will face businessman and retired law enforcement officer Michael Oliveira, who had 32.85 percent. Finishing third was fire Battalion Chief Mike Borean, with 27.62 percent.

In Calaveras Superior Court Department 1, Court Commissioner Grant Barrett came in first with 43.61 percent of the vote. In November, it appears he will face Deputy District Attorney Dana Pfeil, who had 29.27 percent. Private practice attorney Ken Foley was in third with 26.95 percent.

Incumbent Judge Hugh Swift was the leader in Superior Court Department 2, with 48.97 percent. His rival on the November ballot will be San Joaquin County Deputy District Attorney Tim Healy, who had 35.53 percent in the primary. Private practice attorney John J. Trifilo was in third place with 15.32 percent.

There were seven county-wide offices for which only one candidate’s name appeared on the ballot. All of those candidates won easily with only a smattering of write-in votes opposing them. Those winners are Calaveras County Superintendent of Schools Kathy Northington, Assessor Leslie Davis, Auditor-Controller Rebecca Callen, Clerk-Recorder Rebecca Turner, District Attorney Barbara Yook, Coroner-Public Administrator Kevin Raggio and Treasurer-Tax Collector Barbara Sullivan.

Spellman’s loss continues a long history of one-term representatives for District 5. Except for Former Supervisor Terri Bailey, who was elected in 1994 and 1998, the district has not had a representative last more than one term for more than three decades.

Most recently, Supervisor Victoria Erickson served one term and was defeated by Russ Thomas in 2006, and Thomas’ hopes for a second term were destroyed by Darren Spell-man’s victory in 2010.

Spellman’s departure from the board means that come next year, at least four of five board members will be in their first term. If Callaway also loses, then all five will be first-termers.

Until 2012, the board had a long period in which at least two – and sometimes more – board members had multiterm experience. Callaway has served 20 years. Former Supervisor Tom Tryon served 28 years before he lost a re-election bid in 2012 to Debbie Ponte of Angels Camp.

In his email the day after the election, Spellman noted that the county’s severe budget problems will pose huge challenges both during his final months as a supervisor and in coming years.

“With the unprecedented impending financial hardships that we now face as a county with little hope of avoiding bankruptcy, I am very concerned, yet I have no recourse but to wish my successor good luck,” Spellman wrote. “I kept my promise to be a logical and pragmatic voice of reason, to work hard and to be honest in all my dealings with my colleagues and the public.”