Despite Harris’ early lead, Glass wins mayor’s race

Petaluma Mayor David Glass narrowly survived his re-election campaign defeating challenger Mike Harris by 84 votes, as the final vote tallies were released Tuesday by Sonoma County election officials.

Harris, a longtime city council member, held a 211-vote lead on election night, but several thousand ballots still had to be counted. Those vote-by-mail ballots were either dropped off or received on Election Day or the day before, and are not counted until they are certified. That process, which by law has to be done by 28 days after the election, was completed late last week and released Tuesday morning.

The final results show Glass with 9,228 votes to Harris’ 9,114 with a total of 18,372 votes cast, or 58.8 percent of the city’s approximately 31,200 registered voters. There were about 4,300 votes counted since election day.

“I was very optimistic,” said Glass. “I believe this was a victory for grassroots campaigning against a well-financed opponent. I want to give a lot of the credit to our volunteers. We could not have done it without them.”

Harris, who’s been on the council since 2002, conceded the race on his Facebook page.

“We ran a good race and while we came up just short, that’s the way it goes sometimes,” he said. “I’m not going to challenge the results and I wish Mayor Glass well as the city moves forward. He has my support.”

There is no law that triggers an automatic recount but any citizen can request a review of the results. However, the requesting party must also bear the cost of the process, according to election officials. Under state law, recounts must be requested with five days of the 29th day after the election.

The closely contested race may have been driven in part by Measure Q, the revenue-raising measure that Harris supported but which was soundly rejected by voters with more than 56 percent casting ballots against it. However, two of the three vote-getters in the five-person city council race - incumbent Chris Albertson and newcomer Dave King - won election while supporting Measure Q. The third, Teresa Barrett, ran her re-electin campaign largely in opposition of Measure Q, and is a longtime ally of Glass.

King, despite making his first foray into local politics, received the most votes of anyone in the race. Both he and Barrett were the only candidates to earn more than 10,000 votes.

The largest question facing Petaluma is how the city will pay for improvements officials have said are badly needed.

Measure Q, which would have raised the city sales tax by a penny, was projected to add about $10 million per year, earmarked for dozens of infrastructure projects - including the Rainier Avenue cross-town connector - and to hire 10 more police officers. Supporters had argued that these priorities were improvements critical for a city that, like many other jurisdictions around the state and nation, has faced several years of cut backs and budget cuts due to the recent country-wide economic recession.

Glass said he would continue to push for alternative solutions.

“I don’t necessarily tie my election to Measure Q. We have issues moving forward and I’m confident we can deal with them,” he said.

Harris said he would take some time with his family and did not yet know if he would dive back into city politics in the future.

“I want to get back in shape,” he said. “I guess now I’ll have more time for that.”

(Contact Elizabeth Cosin at elizabeth.cosin@arguscourier.com)