Katcho, Parkinson have big nights

November 3, 2010

BY THE CALCOASTNEWS STAFF

It took the San Luis Obispo County Clerk-Recorder’s office almost five hours to post all the local election results on-line Tuesday night, but after the dust finally settled, there were some big winners, some big losers, and a couple of question marks.

Here’s an election snapshot:

Big winner has to be Republican Katcho Achadjian, who soundly defeated Democrat Hilda Zacarias by approximately 20 points in the state Assembly race. Some pundits had picked the liberal Santa Maria councilwoman to win, especially after being endorsed by The Tribune, but Katcho prevailed in both San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara Counties.

Meanwhile in the race to replace Katcho as 4th District county supervisor, conservative Paul Teixeira defeated fellow conservative Mike Zimmerman by capturing 53.01 percent of the vote to Zimmerman’s 46.69.

In the hotly contested county sheriff’s race, Joe Cortez could not get arrested, losing to opponent Ian Parkinson by nearly 10 points, 54.59 percent to 45.06 percent.

Democrat Lois Capps returns to Washington for two more years in Congress after defeating Republican challenger Tom Watson.

Both Arroyo Grande mayor Tony Ferrara and Paso Robles mayor Duane Picanco easily won re-election in their respective races. Shelly Higginbotham is the new mayor of PIsmo Beach after having served as a city councilwoman.

Things appear a bit more uncertain in the Morro Bay and San Luis Obispo mayoral races.

In Morro Bay, former mayor Bill Yates, attempting a political comeback, leads city councilwoman Betty Winholtz by only 89 votes. Winholtz had finished first in the June primary field of four candidates.

In San Luis Obispo, Paul Brown launched a much stronger challenge than some had expected and currently trails Jan Marx by 204 votes. Brown, who used to own Mother’s Tavern downtown, might have been hampered by the efforts of Cal Poly candidate, Andrew C. Ferrell who scored nearly 10 percent of the votes.

Incumbent Andrew Carter, who had been targeted by city public safety unions, easily won re-election to the San Luis Obispo city council. Kathy Smith currently leads Dan Carpenter by 223 votes for the second seat on the council.

The Morro Bay and San Luis Obispo races might be subject to change, depending upon the amount of uncounted absentee ballots.

No recount will be needed for Measure H, the highly controversial attempt to block the proposed Prado Road extension in San Luis Obispo. The measure went down in flames, having been rejected by 80 percent of the city voters.

Charlotte Alexander won the Cuesta College Trustee race to replace the retiring Maggie Kiersch. Alexander finished with nearly 55 percent of the vote to defeat former Cuesta public safety director Pete Sysak.