Aceves to Win Goleta Seat

As of today, Monday, November 13, at 1 p.m., Roger Aceves
has edged out incumbent Cynthia Brock in the Goleta City
Council race. This news comes as the county elections office
completed counting all of the absentee ballots turned in on
election day. If Aceves, who now has 3,938 votes, is able to
maintain his lead over Brock, who has 3,917 votes, he will take the
third open seat on the council. The only threat to the 21-vote
difference are those absentee ballots that could not be processed
on election day due to damage caused by the voter or the mail
delivery.

If Aceves does beat Brock, none of Goleta’s three slow-growth
incumbents, namely Brock, Margaret Connell (3,825 votes), or Jack
Hawxhurst (3,108 votes), will resume their seats. Instead, they
will be replaced by the moderate Aceves, a police detective, and
the two pro-business candidates, Eric Onnen (4,410 votes) and
Michael Bennett (4,460 votes), who both accepted money from Venoco
and New York developers. With Onnen and Bennett (pictured) joining
pro-biz Jean Blois on the five-seat council, an entire overhaul of
the Goleta City Council’s exisiting draft general plan is likely.

To see the updated results, go here.