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With the primary election certified, it is now official that Mountain View City Council member Margaret Abe-Koga and California State Board of Equalization member Sally Lieber are locked in to compete in a run-off election for the District 5 Board of Supervisors race.
Abe-Koga took a decisive lead in the March 5 election, with 37,172 (41.9%) votes, while Lieber followed behind with 21,962 (24.76%) votes, according to the Santa Clara County Registrar of Voters on April 4.
Since no candidate received a majority of the vote, the top two have moved ahead to the November general election.
The primary election whittled down the five candidates to just the top two vote-getters, with Abe-Koga and Lieber once again facing off for the chance to represent the North County. Both announced their intentions to run last spring, long before the other three candidates jumped into the race. Since then, their campaigns have taken different paths, which will continue as they head into the run-off election.
“We’re going to stick with the same plan, the same strategy. I’ve always believed in a strong ground campaign,” Abe-Koga said, adding that she walked 130 precincts in the lead up to the primary election.
Early in the campaign, Abe-Koga pulled ahead with financial contributions from hundreds of individual donations, and raked in support from local unions and political action committees. Late independent expenditures by the California Apartment association, amounting to over $150,000, also flowed into the race in support for Abe-Koga.
Lieber, who has also served on the Mountain View City Council, committed to a corporate-free campaign and said she would not accept donations from developers or big landlords. She plans to stick with this strategy. “I want to continue to raise the issue of special interest money in local politics,” she said.
Lieber intends to keep campaign expenditures low too, whereas Abe-Koga nearly hit the voluntary expenditure limit of $250,000 in the primary election.
The two candidates also had different takes on voter turnout in the primary and what this portends for the general election. Abe-Koga swept the majority of precincts in the North County, including Mountain View, where she has the most name recognition as a city council member. “In Mountain View, the residents see me at work. And so, I think that helps that they’ve known what I’ve been doing, and they’ve been supportive of that,” she said.
But Lieber noted that overall voter turnout was low, which tends to be the case for primary elections. This year, 383,110 ballots were cast in Santa Clara County, accounting for about 37% of total registered voters. For the District 5 race, there were 88,712 votes cast, according to the county register.
Reaching out to people who didn’t vote was a priority for her, Lieber said. “Every voter who’s going to cast a ballot in this election has a choice to make, and it’s important to reach as many as possible,” she said.
The run-off election also provided an opportunity to get to know voters better and hear their concerns, the candidates said.
Abe-Koga said her message of public safety, homelessness and fiscal responsibility resonated with residents because she took the time to listen to them while walking the precincts and knocking on doors. “I think it’s important to reach the voters and hear from them (and) what’s on their minds. It keeps the job real, I like to say, so we’ll continue to do that,” she said.
Lieber said she saw the lead up to the November election as another chance to learn more about what voters considered the most important issues at the grassroots level. Already, Lieber has identified strengthening the county’s response as a social safety net provider for lower-income and working families as a top priority, she said.
But for now, both Abe-Koga and Lieber said they were taking a breather from hitting the campaign trail, at least until after the election results were certified. They also did not expect their campaigns to change much from the initial months when they were the only two in the race.
“I think that we are very different candidates in terms of our experience and our priorities. So I think it’s going to go back to just what it was like in the early months of the campaign,” Lieber said.
Abe-Koga said she planned to stay the course and campaign hard, just like before. “I’ve always run my own race, my own campaign, regardless of how many other candidates or opponents there are, so I don’t envision it to be that different. I think you just have to work hard and get out to the voters, and that’s what I’ve done and will continue to do so,” she said.