The Visalia City Council attracted a new political player for Tuesday's elections -- city firefighters.
In the past, the at-large elected council members only needed to worry about how much money their candidate opponents could raise. But this time, the incumbents also had to take on a city union that spent around $5,000 to elect their opponents.
Losing incumbent Jesus Gamboa said local issues worked against him, but he also blasted the Visalia Firefighters Association for getting involved in the election and likened it to being outnumbered in a fight.
"I can take two at a time, but when five guys jump on you, that's hard to fight," Gamboa said.
The association and the City Council got into a dispute this summer over a proposed pay cut as well as a plan to close a new fire station for several nights to save money. In the end, a less drastic plan of limited furloughs was hammered out.
But smarting from negotiations that "didn't seem like a two-way street," union president Darrin Hughes said, the union endorsed challengers Mike Lane, Warren Gubler and Steven Nelsen -- and placed signs at key intersections listing their names together. The union also hired a political consultant, sent out a mailer, held rallies at a busy street corner and operated phone banks.
Taking a high-profile stand in support of candidates "was just another option to use," said Hughes. "It's something we explored and tried and it worked out."
With more mail-in ballots still to be counted, Lane and Gubler are comfortably ahead, while Nelsen holds a slim 131-vote lead over incumbent Greg Collins. It's possible that Collins could catch up to Nelsen when the remaining mail-ins are counted, but Collins said Wednesday he doesn't consider that a likely outcome, and Nelsen said he's confident his lead will hold.
About 5,000 vote-by-mail ballots countywide remain to be counted, and an unknown number are from Visalia. They'll be counted by the end of this week, said Tulare County elections manager Ann Turner.
Lane, Gubler and Nelsen said they were grateful for the association's assistance. But Gubler said that given the vote totals, he thinks he and Lane would have won regardless.
"I made it clear I appreciated the potential endorsement" when the firefighters interviewed him before the election, Gubler said. "I said I respect you and if you have any concerns, call me."
But Collins decried the firefighters' intensified campaign efforts. "I'm disappointed that partisan politics and union politics have entered the fray."
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