Early results show narrow leads in supervisor races
A third round of results from the Kern County Elections Division shows former Bakersfield City Council member Chris Parlier leading the race for the District 2 seat on the Kern County Board of Supervisors as of 11:07 p.m. Tuesday night.
Speaking to The Californian Tuesday night, Parlier said he was cautiously optimistic.
"It's good to be ahead but I don't want to put the cart before the horse," Parlier said Tuesday evening. "There's still lot of ballots to come in."
Preliminary results showed Parlier taking 33% of the vote, with 8,259 votes. The next highest vote-getter in the race was Tehachapi Realtor Dale Cisneros, with 20%, or 5,173 votes.
Cisneros, a Republican, told The Californian Tuesday evening he had not yet seen the first round of results and was waiting for more votes to come in.
"It all remains to be seen," Cisneros said.
The District 2 seat was not meant to be up for election until 2026, but in April, then-Supervisor Zack Scrivner, a Republican, took a leave of absence following an incident at his Tehachapi home. Despite being out of contact for several months, Scrivner didn't officially resign his seat until Aug. 1, leaving prospective candidates with only a week to file to run for the office.
In all, six candidates threw their hats into the ring for the seat, most of them Republicans: former Tehachapi police officer Pete Graff, Republican; Cisneros, Republican; Ben Dewell, a "semi-retired" atmospheric scientist in Stallion Springs, independent; Rosamond small business owner Kelly Lee Carden Jr., Libertarian; retired Bakersfield educator Bernita Jenkins, Democrat; and Parlier, Republican.
Jenkins was in third place with 16%, or 4,111 votes.
"Things will change over time," Jenkins said. "We all have to sit and watch the race."
Dewell, in fourth place with 11.5%, or 2,857 votes, said he hadn't campaigned outside the two candidate forums that were held last month.
"It's not surprising," Dewell said. "I'm doing what I feel is right standing up and being an alternative in this community."
Carden, in fifth place with 9.9%, or 2,458 votes, said he was a little disappointed by the early results.
"I thought I'd do better, but we know rural communities tend to vote en masse on Election Day," Carden said. "We'll see what happens."
In last place was Graff, with 7.8% or 1,946 votes.
"It's going to take a while for the results to come in," Graff said. "I'm just waiting for the final outcome."
District 5
The second round of results also showed Supervisor Leticia Perez leading in the race for the District 5 seat as of 11:07 p.m. Tuesday night.
According to that round of results, Perez had 51.5% of the vote with 6,421 and challenger Kim Salas had 48.4% with 6,030 votes.
Speaking to The Californian Tuesday, Perez said she was confident she would remain in the lead.
"I've got mixed feelings, I think because the national results are so stunning," Perez said of the strong Republican showing nationwide.
"I'm excited we're going to win," Perez said of her own race.
Salas, a staffer with Assemblymember Dr. Jasmeet Bains, D-Delano, could not immediately be reached for comment Tuesday.
Perez, who's held the District 5 seat since 2013, was the only supervisorial candidate not to earn more than 50% of the vote in the primary, and thus the only supervisor defending her seat in the general election.
In August, Salas announced endorsements from several public safety unions including the Kern County Fire Fighters Union No. 1301 and the Kern County Prosecutors Association and said that District 5 had been neglected.
That same day, Perez announced endorsements from Kern County Sheriff Donny Youngblood; the Greater Bakersfield Chamber of Commerce; the Kern County Democratic Party; and civil rights activist Dolores Huerta; and said her work on the board spoke for itself.
Results released Tuesday evening came from ballots cast at polling places Tuesday and vote-by-mail ballots returned on or before Friday. Additional results are expected in the coming days as ballots are processed.
