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Early election results show Mountain View City Council member Margaret Abe-Koga has taken a decisive lead in the race to represent District 5 on the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors.
Abe-Koga has emerged as the frontrunner with 60,689 (57.2%) votes, while California state Board of Equalization member Sally Lieber is behind with 45,440 (42.8%) votes, according to the Santa Clara County Registrar of Voters as of an update at 4:48 p.m. Thursday afternoon.
The winner will replace incumbent Supervisor Joe Simitian who has termed out of office after serving the county for 12 years. District 5 covers Palo Alto, Mountain View, Los Altos, Los Altos Hills, Cupertino, Saratoga, Los Gatos and parts of San Jose as well as unincorporated communities.
The race to join the board has been competitive from the start, with Abe-Koga and Lieber announcing their campaigns more than a year ago. The two seasoned policy makers have strong ties to Mountain View and edged out three other contenders in the March primary election. Now it looks like Abe-Koga will clinch the North County seat.
Abe-Koga has long served in public office, notably on the Mountain View City Council where she is finishing up her fourth term and has been mayor twice. Abe-Koga also has served on numerous regional commissions and boards, like the Santa Clara County Board of Education as well as VTA, Caltrain, Bay Area Quality Management District and Silicon Valley Clean Energy Authority.
Abe-Koga picked up support from a majority of precincts in the county, after running a campaign that focused on bread-and-butter issues like safe neighborhoods, supporting small businesses and fiscal responsibility.
“The votes are still being counted but I am happy to see the results and am grateful for the support,” Abe-Koga said. Abe-Koga attributed her lead to a broad coalition of support and her message of a “safer, stronger, and healthier community” that resonated with voters, she said.
Abe-Koga focused on a strong ground-game during the campaign, walking the precincts in the district and hearing the concerns of voters directly, she said. Fiscal responsibility was a top concern of residents, she said, noting that it was important to close the county’s budget deficit while still maintaining core services for its most vulnerable residents.
On the campaign trail, Abe-Koga proposed several ideas to generate more revenue for the county, like land leases, cost recovery options and putting an affordable housing measure on the ballot – similar to Measure A but on a bigger scale, in the vicinity of $4.5 billion. It takes that kind of money to get affordable homes built, Abe-Koga said at the time.
Abe-Koga also picked up a lot of support from political committees that included police and firefighter associations as well as the California Apartment Association, a powerful landlord interest group.
Lieber, a former state Assembly member, campaigned on issues related to affordable housing, environmental sustainability and mental health services. Lieber committed to a corporate-free campaign early in the race and said she would not accept donations from big landlords or developers.
As election night came to an end, Lieber said she was not focusing on the results of the Board of Supervisors race just yet, and was waiting for the final tally. Still, she said she was pleased with her campaign and would do it the same way again.
For Abe-Koga, the evening was going late with election parties. But tomorrow she would be back doing what she always does, attending meetings and serving the community, she said.
