In final count, David Glass edges Mike Harris for Petaluma mayor

After all the ballots were finally counted, Sonoma County election results released Tuesday flipped the order of several close races, including for Petaluma mayor.

Incumbent David Glass was confirmed as the winner of the Petaluma mayoral race, edging out challenger Mike Harris by a margin of 50.1 percent to 49.6 percent, or 84 votes. Harris was in front in the preliminary count on election night three weeks ago by a margin of 50.6 percent to 49.1 percent, a lead of 211 votes.

But that changed Tuesday.

“I was optimistic all along, but you never know what’s going to happen,” Glass said of his re-election as mayor. “I’m really happy for the way the result came out.”

The final count also reshuffled results in two other races.

In the contest for the second of two open seats on the Healdsburg City Council, Brigette Mansell prevailed over Jeff Civian by a margin of 25.5 percent to 24.9 percent, representing a gap of 40 votes. Civian had a 10-vote lead in the preliminary count from election night.

“I’m really happy,” Mansell said Tuesday of the definitive result. “I feel a sense of faith for the future, knowing it does make a difference to get out there and vote.”

Mansell, a high school teacher making her first foray into politics, said she ran as “the bridge between government and the citizenry,” adding “our town really needs to get a sense of what we can do to make things better for the livability factor and not just the visitors.”

And in the race for West Sonoma County Union High School District, David Stecher took the third of three seats, outdistancing Eric Kirchman by the slimmest of margins, 21.3 percent to 21.2 percent, or 38 votes.

On election night 110,644 ballots were counted. But there still were almost 36,000 ballots left to be tallied, representing last-minute mail-in ballots, or ones that were dropped off at the precincts, as well as provisional ballots.

In all, 146,627 ballots were cast, representing a 60 percent turnout.

Statewide “many considered it an abysmal, fairly ho-hum election,” said Gloria Colter, Sonoma County’s chief deputy registrar of voters. “Sonoma County fared well with overall votes cast.”

Glass on Tuesday portrayed his victory as a win by a grass-roots campaign that was outspent more than 2-to-1 by Harris, who opted to run for mayor instead of his council seat.

“When you go up against a candidate who’s built a political base and raised a lot of money, it’s always difficult,” Glass said.

It’s the third time Glass has been elected mayor in Petaluma, the only city in the county in which a mayor is elected rather than appointed by fellow city council members.

Glass said he has “been down this road before.” The first time he was elected mayor in 2002 he won by 78 votes.

Glass was against Measure Q, a proposed Petaluma sales tax measure that also lost. Harris favored the sales tax measure and was also backed by police and fire employee groups.

Glass, who has the backing of environmental and self-described progressive groups, said he was the fiscal conservative in the race, who wants “do everything possible to get fiscal sanity restored to Petaluma and the (employee) pension contracts.”

“He’s right, I’m left. He’s pro-developer,” Glass said of other things that distinguished the two candidates. “I would extract every ounce of flesh I could get from a developer.”

He said voters had “an absolute, clear choice based on philosophy.”

Glass also differentiated himself in another way: “I’m not out there to go along with police and fire and rubber stamp their benefits. I do the best I can to protect the taxpayer,” he said.

You can reach Staff Writer at ?521-5214 or clark.mason@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter ?@clarkmas.