Like a bad City Council meeting we had to stay up way past midnight to try and find out who won and by how much, but even that didn’t work. I don’t know when the final vote count was posted, but it was well after 7:00 AM when I first saw it. Then I had to rush off early this morning to participate as  a presenter in an all-day symposium on stucco (part of my day job) and so far have missed all the post election discussions, press conferences, congratulations and condolences.

Pending counting of any remaining provisional ballots, it appears that the voters of Richmond have elected me to a fifth term on the City Council. My congratulations go to Nat Bates and Gary Bell who appear to have likewise been successful. Below is a chart of more or less final election returns in the City Council race courtesy of Don Gosney.

I would first like to thank the 9,310 Richmond voters who have asked me to continue serving and those who supported my campaign with your monetary donations and your time. And for the 15,000 or so voters who did not vote for me, rest assured that I will continue to represent every Richmond resident in every part of Richmond.

This was another record breaking year of spending (probably in excess of $4 million) by deep pockets business interests in a local election that without Chevron and the soda tax might have been about as interesting watching paint dry. I take the fact that all incumbents were returned as a vote of confidence by the people in the direction Richmond is going.

While I am disappointed in some of the results, I don’t expect to see a sea change in the political direction of the City Council. Only one face will change, and I don’t anticipate Gary Bell to represent a radical departure from many of the policy decisions that have been moving Richmond forward over the last few years. Expect a change in style but not necessarily in the substance of core decisions about Richmond’s direction. Gary last served in 2004, and if you want a peek at what those years were like, visit the E-FORUM Archives for the years 2004 and previous, particularly the year-end reports. He was on the City Council when we faced and overcame the financial challenges of 2003-2004, and he participated in the decision to hire Bill Lindsay as city manager.

Nat, of course, is a known and predictable quantity and will probably not surprise any of us. I have worked with him for 17 years, and I can do it for another four.

While the soda tax did not pass, I have tremendous respect for Jeff Ritterman for bringing it forward and being its prime proponent. Unlike many, he didn’t get paid a cent for his advocacy, and I still believe it was the right thing to do. We have accomplished so much to make Richmond a healthier and more livable city, and it would have been nice to add this to our portfolio. I will miss Jeff and his dedication to making the world a better place by acting locally.

On the WCCUSD front, I am pleased that both Measure E and G passed, thanks particularly to the hard work of Charles Ramsey who charged ahead when many were skeptical and skillfully managed the campaign to final victory. There is nothing as important as education to the success of our city, and the voters have proven that they understand and support this priority.

Richmond voters give nod to Bates, Butt and Bell for City Council

By Robert Rogers
Contra Costa Times
Posted:   11/06/2012 08:00:00 PM PST
Updated:   11/07/2012 09:11:03 AM PST

RICHMOND -- Incumbents Nat Bates and Tom Butt were headed to victory in Tuesday's City Council election, with challenger Gary Bell poised to take the other available slot.
With all precincts reporting, Bates was in the lead with 17.9 percent of the vote, followed by Butt at 15.6 percent and Bell at 15.2 percent.
Eduardo Martinez was next at 14.2 percent, and Marilyn Langlois had 11.2 percent. The other six candidates well short of 10 percent.
An undetermined number of mail-in ballots remained to be counted Wednesday morning.
The top three vote-getters will have a seat on the council beginning in January. Butt stopped short of saying that his spot was secure late Tuesday but was already thinking about his next term in office.
"I gave up predicting Richmond politics," Butt, 68, said from his campaign office in Point Richmond. "I'll be glad when this is over, and we can get back to normal business."
Bates, 81, said he was happy to have performed well with early votes.
"The African-American and Latino voters in Richmond, they tend to prefer to vote at the polls in person on Election Day," Bates said in a hallway in the Hotel Mac, where supporters declared him a winner. "I think we'll do very well."
At least one of the three seats will be filled by a new face.
Councilman Jeff Ritterman, a former cardiologist who spearheaded a number of high-profile initiatives in his four years, announced earlier this year that he would not seek re-election in order to spend more time with family.
"I don't know exactly what my future is," Ritterman said, speaking over merengue music playing at the election party at the Richmond Progressive Alliance's downtown offices. "I'll be unemployed in January for the first time in my life."
Longtime incumbents Bates and Butt were looking to stay in power in a field that featured nine other candidates.
The tumultuous campaigns came against the backdrop of millions in American Beverage Industry funding against local beverage tax Measure N. The council race was also heavily influenced by more than a million dollars from Chevron Corp., the major donor to independent expenditure committee Moving Forward.
It all equaled an unprecedented cavalcade of campaign spending in the blue-collar city of just over 100,000 residents.
Chevron's dollars have been used to support the campaigns of Bates and Bell and challenger Bea Roberson.
At the same time, the campaign spent about $200,000 opposing Langlois and Martinez, including creating websites devoted to divulging unflattering information about both candidates.
Langlois and Martinez both raised money from mostly small donors and public financing, and their campaigns were boosted by support from the RPA's vaunted ground game.
In addition to advertisements, mailers, billboards and websites supporting or opposing candidates, Chevron's money was used to contract with public relations firms, consultants and polling groups, campaign records show.
The new council will convene in January, beginning a period that some hope will include some cooled relations. Major issues confront the city, including ongoing talks with Chevron over its refinery upgrade plans and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, which will build a massive new campus in Richmond over the next few years.
The 2010-12 council was one of the more divisive and embittered in recent memory.
Ritterman said late Tuesday that Martinez and Langlois both had strong chances of catching Bell for the third and final council slot. Ritterman noted that in 2008, he fell behind during early voting.
"I was fourth when I went to sleep that night and first by a big margin when I woke up in the morning," Ritterman said, smiling.
Contact Robert Rogers at 510-262-2726 or rrogers@bayareanewsgroup.com and follow Twitter.com/roberthrogers.

Bates, Butt and Bell win council race

With just a few precincts left to count, it appears that Richmond voters elected Nat Bates, Tom Butt and Gary Bell to the three open City Council seats. (Photo by: Julie Brown)
By Rachel Witte and Rachel de LeonPosted November 7, 2012 2:24 am
In a hotly contested City Council election, with millions of dollars at play and a recent push into the national spotlight, Richmond voters have elected Nat Bates, Tom Butt and Gary Bell to the three open seats on the council dais.
The two RPA candidates, Eduardo Martinez and Marilyn Langlois, finished just outside the top three, with Martinez trailing Bell for the final council spot by 600 votes.
The return of Bell after an eight-year hiatus and reelection of incumbents Butt and Bates means the Richmond Progressive Alliance will lose its four-seat majority on the council once Councilmember Jeff Ritterman retires.
Bates led all candidates with 17.9 percent of the vote, Bell received 15.2 percent and Butt received 15.6 percent, according to the Contra Costa County election results.
In response to accusations that he is tied to Chevron, Bates said his victory was not about the money, though he said he appreciates those who gave directly to his campaign. “People know me, they trust me, they respect me,” he said.
Bates, who has historically opposed RPA-sponsored issues and positions, was critical of the RPA and their support for Measure N. “If you get too far out in front of your constituents, no matter what high goal the cause may be, you run into difficulties,” he said.
Butt has served on the council since 1995. Although not an official member of the RPA, Butt and current Councilmember Jim Rogers will likely maintain the council’s progressive direction.
“There’s Nat and Gary, Tom and I, and Gayle and Jovanka,” Rogers said, laying out his vision of the council’s new political makeup.
Butt agreed. “I don’t think it’s going to change radically,” he said.
Butt’s supporters did speculate that the shift gives Rogers more power because the progressives will need him more.
Energy at the RPA office started out high but dropped steadily as the night wore on; dancing to quick salsa beats that blared from speakers at the group’s headquarters dwindled as the election results poured in.
“The money is what it is, you know what the figures are,” Langlois said of the thousands spent to defeat her. “There are entities trying to buy this election. We had a lot of heart, and that counts for something.”
Additional reporting by Zach St. George, Stephen Hobbs and Sarah Phelan.

Measure N heading for defeat

A billboard on Cutting Blvd in Richmond urged residents to vote no on Measure N. (Photo by: Jason Jaacks)
By Rachel de Leon and Zach St. GeorgePosted November 6, 2012 11:38 pm
Measure N, the controversial “soda tax,” is falling further behind as more votes are counted. With 88 percent of precincts reporting, the measure, which would have placed a one-cent-per-ounce tax on Richmond businesses that sell drinks with added sugar, appears to have been soundly rejected by voters.
With only six precincts left to report, the measure trailed by more than 7,000 votes.
Championed by the Richmond Progressive Alliance, the proposed tax attracted national media attention, and drew the ire of local pro-business groups and the national soda industry, which spent more than $2.6 million to defeat the measure. A victory would have made Richmond the first city in the nation to approve a tax of its type.
“This was a total and utter repudiation of that tax,” said Chuck Finnie, a spokesman for the Community Coalition Against Beverage Taxes, which led the effort to defeat the measure.
Their campaign culminated in a last-minute push to boost voter attendance, with vans full of employees and volunteers going door to door to get voters to the polls.
It also seemed likely to be a major defeat for the Richmond Progressive Alliance, and in particular Councilmember Jeff Ritterman, who designed the measure. A retired cardiologist, Ritterman enthusiastically campaigned behind it. He often appeared in public dragging a red Radio Flyer wagon loaded with 40 pounds of sugar, representing how much sugar the average American child consumes annually.
“It’s not about beating, it’s about our children’s health,” Ritterman said. “That’s the central issue here.”
The measure aimed to reduce obesity in Richmond, where nearly a quarter of adults are obese, and more than half of children are overweight or obese. But opponents called the measure overbearing, misguided, and potentially harmful to local businesses.
Dr. Brazell Carter, who’s been an internal medicine doctor in Richmond for more than 30 years, has been shown on mailers and in an ad produced by the Community Coalition Against Beverage Taxes opposing the measure.
“The tax will not make people healthier,” Carter said in the ad. “Diet and exercise will make people healthier.”
Meanwhile, many local sellers of sugary drinks worried about what the measure would mean for their business. Keeping track of sales in ounces would be a challenge for some. In a September interview, Muhamad Nasser, whose family owns the Richmond Food Center grocery on the corner of 23rd Street and Cutting Boulevard, said he doesn’t know how much soda the business sells each week, and that it would be difficult to start keeping track. The grocery sells more than a dozen different sizes of sugary drinks, some of them measured in fractions of ounces.
“Red Bulls, they got four different sizes themselves,” Nasser said.
Additionally, because the measure would have only affected businesses in Richmond, Nasser and others worried that a soda tax would drive consumers to buy their soda just outside the city limits.
Perhaps the measure’s biggest opponent, though was the national soda industry. Soon after the City Council approved the ballot measure in May, the American Beverage Association, an industry trade group, began pouring money into the campaign to defeat it. Most of the $2.6 million the Community Coalition Against Beverage Taxes raised as of Nov. 1 was from the association.
The money allowed Measure N’s opponents to run advertising circles around its supporters, funding campaign advisors, media consultants, graphic designers, canvassers and phone bankers, and paying for billboards, TV and radio ads, yard signs, mailers, T-shirts and other anti-N schwag.
Meanwhile, Richmond Fit for Life, the committee supporting Measure N, raised about $61,000, or roughly two percent of what the Community Coalition Against Beverage Taxes has raised.
After the first returns showed Measure N down, Finnie congratulated his campaign workers, who were celebrating in an upstairs bar room of the Hotel Mac in Point Richmond.
The community, he said, has a history of passing measures that benefit the public. They didn’t vote for Measure N, he said, because it was a regressive, ineffective way to combat obesity. The way to fight obesity, he said, is through education, not through a tax that would primarily–and negatively–affect Richmond businesses.
“This tax got rejected because it’s stupid,” Finnie said.
Ritterman, who will retire from the council in January, was reflective, but said that this isn’t the end of the road in the battle against soda. “This is the best national publicity that Richmond has ever enjoyed in the time that I’ve been in Richmond,” he said. “I think the genie’s out of the bottle. I don’t think they can put it back in.”