JAs Among Winners, Losers in Tuesday’s Election

Rafu Staff Report

Some of the local races in Tuesday’s election involved Nikkei candidates. Following are results from around California.

Los Angeles County

In the race for two seats on the Diamond Bar City Council, the winners were criminal prosecutor Ruth Low with 1,793 votes (30.67 percent) and incumbent Carol Herrera with 1,744 (29.83 percent).

Jeanie Nishime

Retired police officer Robert Nishimura was in third place with 1,722 votes (29.46 percent) and Chino Airport ambassador Robert “Bob” Velker was fourth with 587 (10.04 percent).

City Councilmember Jack Tanaka, first elected in 2005, decided not to run for re-election and will be succeeded by Low. According to The San Gabriel Valley Tribune, Tanaka endorsed Nishimura as his replacement, but Low found more support among his colleagues.

In the race for three seats on the Covina Valley Unified School District Governing Board, the winners were incumbent Darrell Alan Myrick with 1,247 votes (20.99 percent); child advocate and parent Sonia Frasquillo with 1,202 (20.23 percent); and incumbent Sue Maulucci with 1,053 (17.72 percent).

Incumbent William Knoll was fourth with 975 votes (16.41 percent); parent Alice Suzuki was fifth with 830 (13.97 percent), and information technology manager Kien Lam was sixth with 635 (10.69 percent).

In the race for two seats on the El Segundo Unified School District Governing Board, the top finishers were businesswoman/educator Nancy Cobb with 944 votes (36.46 percent) and Board President Jeanie Nishime with 824 (31.83 percent), but the incumbent was only three votes ahead of former school board member Chris Powell (821 votes, 31.71 percent). Nishime has been vice president for student and community advancement at El Camino College since 2007.

According to The Daily Breeze, late vote-by-mail and provisional ballots will have to be tabulated before the result is declared final.

Riverside County

Eugene Kitagawa

In the race for two seats on the Southern Coachella Valley Community Services District Board of Directors, the office was not on the ballot because an insufficient number of candidates applied. Typically, the uncontested candidates that qualify take these elected offices, or advance to a general election in a primary.

Running for four additional years on the board were incumbents Eugene Kitagawa and Normalee Rodriguez. The district provides governmental services to the communities of Thermal, Oasis, Mecca and Vista Santa Rosa.

San Mateo County

In South San Francisco, City Councilmembers Rich Garbarino and Karyl Matsumoto were re-elected with, respectively, 4,171 votes (51.3 percent) and 3,966 (48.7 percent). There were no challengers.

Karyl Matsumoto

This will be the sixth term for Matsumoto, who has been on the council for 18 years. She is also a board member of the San Mateo County Transportation District; chair of the San Mateo County Transportation Authority; a board member of the City/County Association of Governments; and a member of the Caltrain Modernization Local Policy Group.

In the race for two seats on the Belmont-Redwood Shores School District Board of Trustees, the winners were parent and scientist Huan Lac with 2,453 votes (34.1 percent) and incumbent Robert Tashjian with 2,374 (33.0 percent).

Naomi Nishimoto, a parent and landscape architect, was third with 1,381 (19.2 percent), followed by incumbent Daniel Kaul with 980 (13.6 percent).

Other Election News

Jay Chen, a member of the Hacienda La Puente Unified School District Governing Board, defeated incumbent Frederick Chyr, 2,143 votes (46.41 percent) to 1,506 (32.61 percent) in the Mount San Antonio Community College District. Chen will represent Trustee Area 5, which includes Hacienda Heights, City of Industry, La Puente and part of Bassett.

In 2012, Chen, a Democrat, lost to Republican incumbent Ed Royce in the 39th Congressional District.

In West Covina, the top vote-getters in the race for City Council were veteran Lloyd Johnson and small business owner Tony Wu with 2,130 votes (22.18 percent) and 1,969 (20.51 percent), respectively. Mayor Frederick Sykes was a close third with 1,942 (20.22 percent), followed by three other candidates.

Mayor Pro Tem James Toma supported Sykes, but told The San Gabriel Valley Tribune that if the numbers hold, he thought Johnson and Wu would be fine additions to the council.

In San Francisco, Ed Lee, the city’s first Asian American mayor, was re-elected overwhelmingly with 84,453 votes (56.81 percent), beating nine challengers, four of them write-in candidates. First appointed in 2010, Lee has now won his second four-year term.