Williams, Pinches lead Mendocino County race

Front-runners emerging from crowded races for Mendocino County’s 3rd and 5th supervisorial districts Tuesday night included Albion-Little River Fire Chief Ted Williams and former county Supervisor John Pinches in early results. ?But there were thousands of ballots yet to be counted in a variety of electoral contests, including those for supervisor in the county’s two largest districts as well as county school superintendent and county assessor-clerk-recorder.

With mail-in ballots counted just after 8 p.m. and all precincts reporting, the votes put Pinches ahead in the 3rd District race with 34 percent. Willits school teacher John Haschak had 31 percent of the vote in an eight-way contest to represent the north county region that includes Willits, Brooktrails, Laytonville and Covelo.

The front-runner must get more than 50 percent of the vote to avoid a November runoff election.

Williams led in the 5th District supervisorial race, with 43 percent of the vote with all precincts in, followed by Chris Skyhawk, who had 30 percent. David Roderick had 18 percent.

Anderson Valley Unified School Superintendent Michelle Hutchins was ahead in the race for county superintendent of schools, with 54 percent of the vote, compared to 45 percent for Pomolita Middle School Principal Bryan Barrett.

Katrina Bartolomie, assistant clerk-recorder and assistant registrar of voters, led in the race for Mendocino County assessor-clerk-recorder, with 67 percent of the early votes.