AND FOR THE MAIN COURSE, ALPHABET SOUP
Folks, we’re gonna start with Klusmire’s Inyo roundup and then Lunch will take take over from there. The latest election results (that we could provide before press deadline) appear on pages 10 & 11.
Simplistic Inyo County Election Headline Summaries Suitable for Social Media: Schat didn’t happen in Bishop, but the Grocery Guy delivered; Free Eastside conservative candidates were free to fail and did so by locking up losses in the Bishop City Council Race and also flunked out of the Bishop School District race; Will the Handyman did not win handily but did appear to hammer out a victory in the 5th District supervisor race; voters didn’t have to grade on a curve to overwhelmingly approve four school district bond measures, all of which passed with flying colors.
National Note: Inyo County’s 2020 flirtation with Biden Blue went down in Red-Orange flames as the county backed Donald Trump (by a slim 171 votes) for the second time in three presidential elections.
(At this point your correspondent pauses to be grateful that print journalism doesn’t offer an immediate comment/ snark section.)
Onward into the details from the semi-official election results as of Thursday morning, with the following mandatory caveat: these are not final results. More mail in ballots can arrive until Nov. 12. Turnout thus far is a weak 58%, compared to turnout in the 70% and 80% range in previous presidential elections, so ….
Two incumbent Bishop City Council members, Karen Kong and Jose Garcia, won reelection with each taking about 25% of the vote (out of the 2,186 total votes cast). The final open seat went to Dennis Freundt, co-owner of Grocery Outlet, with 22%. The closest challenger was the young guy, Tyler Beadle with 14%, while Eric “Bink” Schat (10%) and Sterling Schat (4%) brought up the rear.
Bishop Unified School District voters returned incumbent Steve Elia to the board, with 27% (out of 6,516 votes), with longtime teacher Karen Keehn taking 31%. Jamie Morley got 22% and Michelle Mulligan earned 19%.
The pair of bond proposals from BUSD got straight As. Measure R got a 63% grade and Measure S hit 64%, easily topping the 55% required for passage. The two bonds total about $60 million for upgrades to all the district’s Elementary, Middle and High School buildings. Close to $30 million of the total will go to massive upgrades to the historic, 103-year-old High School main building. The district is also banking on obtaining about $12 million in state funds for the extensive remodels and renovations.
Note on the Ground Game: Based on the clusters of yard signs and Facebook support from prominent Free Eastside members (which are the closest thing to polling in Bishop’s non-partisan races), the “No New Taxes No on R and S” signs were grouped together with Schat, Beadle, Morley and Mulligan, representing the conservative slate on Bishop ballots.
In Southern Inyo, Will “The Handyman” Waldelton has built a bit of a lead over Dan Berry. The two Lone Pine residents are seeking to replace incumbent Matt Kingsley. Waldelton nailed down 501 votes to Berry’s 445, to achieve a tentative lead, pending the final count.
Two school bond questions also passed handily. The Lone Pine School District’s $7.5 million bond earned 61% of the vote while the $7.5 million bond for the Owens Valley School District in Independence won about 63% of the vote. Both also expect some matching funds from the state.
Jon Klusmire of Bishop was happy to partake in the best Inyo County election night tradition: the potluck grub in the courthouse featuring homemade cookies, casseroles (no kidding), fried chicken, some additional mysterious entrees, and a token appearance by small amounts of carrots and celery.
And in Mono County …
A few things stood out from Tuesday’s results.
First, people in Mono County are more liberal than ever.
Consider the vote tally for president, where Mono County voters opted for Kamala Harris over Donald Trump by a whopping 20-point margin, 58%-38%.
As recently as 2004, Mono County made headlines by being the only county in the United States which had a vote deadlock between Republican George W. Bush and Democrat John Kerry.
Second, Mono County voters, particuarly Mammoth voters, like taxes. They like taxing guests and they like taxing homeowners.
Measure L, sold as a “tax on other people” passed easily, with approximately 63% of the vote.
L raised the local bed tax rate by two points. When the TBID fee is added in, Mammoth’s bed tax rate of 16% becomes the 4th highest in the state, trailing only Disneyland, Pasadena and San Francisco.
We did not include the Mammoth Town Council vote tally on page ten because it was a non-competitive race. Oddly, Brent Truax had 70 more votes than incumbent Bill Sauser. A coincidence or a message?
Measure J, Mammoth’s school bond measure proposing an extension of the current $37 per $100,000 in valuation tax, is the cliffhanger.
The vote is currently 1,833-1,511.
It needs 55% for passage and currently sits at 54.8%
Meaning, if seven of the above votes had been different, it would meet the threshold.
Measure M, proposed by the Fire District, required a 2/3 vote for passage and has easily surpassed that.
