Leading for Petaluma mayor, Mike Harris stops short of claiming win

Petaluma mayoral candidate Mike Harris, ahead after Election Day tallies, isn’t dusting off his gavel just yet.

Harris, a three-time councilman, leads sitting Mayor David Glass by 211 votes - a margin of 51 percent to 49 percent.

The preliminary result includes about 14,000 mail-in ballots received by Sunday by Sonoma County elections officials and ballots cast at the polls on Election Day.

But an estimated 25,000 to 50,000 last-minute mail-in ballots turned in after Sunday, plus provisional ballots, remain uncounted, election officials said Wednesday.

It wasn’t clear how many Petaluma ballots were in that mix, nor when the registrar of voters would have precise figures. Officials have a month to finalize the results.

County Registrar of Voters Bill Rousseau wouldn’t speculate on whether the remaining Petaluma ballots could turn the tide in the mayor’s race. Petaluma had 31,206 registered voters for Tuesday’s election. A total of 14,003 ballots were counted in preliminary results released early Wednesday morning.

Harris, who Wednesday was removing the hundreds of campaign signs his supporters put up for the race, said he’s not declaring victory.

“It’s simply too early to call anything,” he said. “I’m still cautiously optimistic and hope for the best.”

Glass didn’t return messages Wednesday.

Results from two other Petaluma items on the ballot were much clearer: Measure Q, a sales tax increase, was soundly rejected, and three council seats were filled.

Dave King, a lawyer and longtime community volunteer, was the top vote-getter of five candidates, with 24 percent of votes cast. Claiming the other two seats were incumbents Teresa Barrett and Chris Albertson, with 22 percent and 19 percent of the vote, respectively.

Newcomer Ken Quinto garnered 18 percent of the vote in his first election, while former councilwoman Janice Cader-Thompson finished last with 16 percent of the vote.

Measure Q went down to resounding defeat, with 56 percent of voters opposing the one-cent sales tax increase, which would have raised Petaluma’s local tax rate to 9.25 percent in perpetuity.

King, who along with Harris supported the measure, said the new council now will have to figure out a way to fund road and sidewalk repairs voters said they wanted from Measure Q, as well as the Rainier Avenue crosstown connector, which a majority of the council supports.

“The future council is going to have to go back to the drawing board to get Rainier built,” he said. “People absolutely want that. I walked a ton and I heard that time after time after time. One of our jobs when we get convened in January is to figure out a way to get it done.”

You can reach Lori A. Carter at ?762-7297 or lori.carter@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @loriacarter.