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.


Loading...
14 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments

Too bad. Another instance of voter ignorance. The lack of information about the candidates was profound and totally the fault of the ‘mainstream’ media. The back and forth of ‘CalCoastNews’ is, unfortunately, not well known to many. If the qualifications of the two ballot candidates was displayed, minus the hype, the obvious choice would not be the one elected. Hype is too much the deciding factor, and we shall enjoy the results.


mine get deleted or “edited” too…….so rediculous.


As far as Ian is concerned

In the 1990’s SLOPD was one of the lowest paid LE agency and now one of the highest paid.

Currently, the three highest paid government employess are elected, appointed and LE officials.

Historically (Rome before the fall) Roman soldiers were paid more than the people taxed.

His pretty popularity goes well in a well or over paid agency but how will his sugar daddy pretty boy image fare with budget cuts?

If LE screw up, they get more funding to improve, if they do well they get more funding, if sued it goes on the tax payer’s tab (can’t lose)!

Perhaps Joe is better in this area.

But when it comes to real human concerns of ordinary nobody’s (e.g. people’s children and love ones) I think Ian is by far better but the price tag is high (I don’t mind paying extra)

would have preferred Ben Hall or Jerry Lenthal.


“Just to be clear, unlike our friends at The Tribune, CalCoastNews does not endorse candidates.” Hmm, here we go again with the “I stuck my foot in my mouth and now I will play the I’m just a reporter gig.” Dave, your just to brash to admit it. But hey I got an idea now. Congrates Ian, congrates!!!!

HaHaHaHaHaHa!!!!!!!!!!


MH, if you could make some sense we might be able to form an opinion of your seemingly idiotic rants.


California and SLO county are now union run and that’s only good for the union members not the regular citizens. From Brown down to Parkinson the backing of unions bought those votes. As Brown said in one of his debates “I have the unions in my back pocket”. Parkinson is no better, with the backing of ASLOCDS and DSA we can’t expect to see real change.


I voted for Cortez, clearly the best man to be Sheriff.


I wish Parkinson the best and hope for the best, he’ll need it. The questions is will we all be better off in 4 years, or will the sheriff’s department continue to sink lower into the unethical and unprofessional black hole it has become?


Public trust is not automatic with a new sheriff, it’s earned!


I am very happy Katcho won.

My perception of him is, he is far and few between, a down to earth person.


ha ha ha ha ha! Ian won ;-)


If this is an example of a Parkinson voter then appears that we’ll have more of the same nonsense.


A Stupid is as Stupid Says!


Way to beat the system Ian and the media, and the local naysayers. This is one good example where the power of the vote won over the power of corrupted, over opinionated media.


Even though I was not a Parkinson supporter and didn’t vote for him, I wish him the best of luck!


It is IMMATURE people like yourself that make HIM look bad! I really hope he sees this post and responds to it. If this is ANY indication on how our Sheriff will run then….HERE WE GO AGAIN!


Just when the county most needed transparency in the Sheriffs department along comes Ian. High school diplomas laugh at his education. Great example for our youth. He couldn’t qualify for a job in his own department and he will be running it. Classic example of tall, good looking and empty suit winning over short guy.