City Council incumbents likely to avoid runoff in November

San Bernardino News Daily June 19, 2022

Voters in San Bernardino City Council elections for the 1^st, 2^nd and 4^th Wards have likely reelected the incumbent councilmembers to their seats on the dais for another four years.

Results are not final and votes are still being tabulated, but 1^st Ward Councilmember Theodore Sanchez, 2^nd Ward Councilmember Sandra Ibarra, and 4^th Ward Councilmember Fred Shorett all lead their opponents by strong margins and each is currently well above the fifty percent threshold to avoid a runoff election in November.

Theodore Sanchez leads challenger Gil Botello by a 56 to 44 percent margin in the 1^st Ward. This race was a repeat of the election in 2018 where Sanchez bested Botello by a narrow margin.

Sandra Ibarra, running for her second term in the 2^nd Ward this time faced off with Pastor Terry Elliott. This race was the closest contest with Elliott leading in early ballots cast before controversy erupted related to Elliott’s previously undisclosed lawsuits and criminal history. While the Police Officer’s Association declined to withdraw their endorsement of Elliott, the public disclosures in the last week of the campaign caused a swing of ballots cast closer to election towards Ibarra.

Ibarra currently has a narrow lead of 56 votes and is a percentage point above the fifty percent threshold. A third candidate filed as a write in which initially kept candidates below the threshold, but that appears to no longer be a factor.

In the 4^th Ward, long-time incumbent Fred Shorett is leading opponents Teresa Parra Craig and Vince Laster by a 54-39-6 percent margin. Shorett, the longest current serving councilmember first elected in a special election in 2009, had squeaked out a victory of only 8 votes against an unknown challenger in 2018. He fared much better this election against Parra Craig, a former San Bernardino Unified School District Board member.

If the election results hold up as expected, the incumbent councilmembers will be sworn into their new four-year terms in December.