Clovis incumbents have strong start in council election. Votes still being counted
The Clovis City Council’s incumbents took the early lead in the election Tuesday as the vote tallies were reported.
Incumbents Lynne Ashbeck and Vong Mouanoutoua each had 32.1% of the votes, with each carrying more than 7,600 votes. Voters are picking two members of the council from the five vying for the seats.
Diane Pearce trailed with 20.9% (4,992), Noha Elbaz had 11.6% (2,762) and Herman Nagra had 3.1% (758), according to the Fresno County Registrar of Voters Office.
Ashbeck has been on the council since 2001, winning re-election four times. She’s served as mayor in four of those years.
In Clovis, the mayor is not elected directly by voters but rather appointed to a two-year term by the other members of the council, who are elected at-large.
Ashbeck said Tuesday she was confident the latest numbers were in her favor.
“I think it’s safe to say Vong and I have been re-elected,“ she said. “I’m grateful, I’m humbled and a little tired. I think it shows people are happy with the direction of the city of Clovis.”
The election Tuesday is the first in Clovis under the new California Voter’s Choice Act mail-in system. Ashbeck also noted the increase in social media campaigning in Clovis since her last election in 2017, as well as the national discourse related to the last presidential election.
“I’ve never run in a race quite like this before,” she said.
Mouanoutoua is in his first term on the City Council, winning the seat in 2017. He held an in-person watch party in Clovis with live music. In an email on Wednesday, he said he’s waiting for the final results to comment.
The term for the election’s two winners will be for three years rather than the traditional four as the city of Clovis will move in 2022 to be aligned with the presidential election. Elections in odd-numbered years draw a lower voter turnout than the presidential years.
County officials estimate about 2,800 ballots remain to be counted plus any that are postmarked on Election Day and received by the end of the day on Friday, according to election officials. The next update to the vote count is planned for Friday afternoon.
Pearce is a newcomer to running herself, but worked for George Radanovich, a former Republican Congress member. She was not immediately available for comment.
Elbaz is also new to city politics, but did run a close but unsuccessful race for a seat on the Clovis Unified School Board last fall. She admitted the lead in this election by the incumbents would be difficult for her to overcome.
“Obviously it’s not the result I wanted to see thus far. There’s still a lot of votes out there,” she said. “That’s a pretty big gap.”
The rare Democrat to run a race in Clovis, Elbaz held a watch party over Zoom.
Elbaz said her goals were beyond only winning the race, adding the city should move to council districts in order to have a truer representation.
“I just think it’s important to have diverse voices in the races,” she said.
Nagra, who owns an am-pm in Fresno, released a statement on Tuesday, saying the council is weighted too far towards big developers over small business.
“Until we have district based voting and not at-large elections this will not change,” he said in the statement. “More of the same is what we have to look forward to.”
The election in the city of about 72,600 registered voters, according to the Fresno County Registrar’s Office, has not been without controversy.
Nagra was arrested in January after police obtained a video of him stealing political signs belonging to Mouanoutoua and Pearce, according to Clovis police.
Officers obtained a warrant and found signs in Nagra’s backyard near Temperance and Gettysburg avenues, police said. Nagra has said that the signs were placed on private property without the owner’s permission, or other places they did not belong like public property.
Mouanoutoua was also accused of illegal or unethical campaign efforts last week after sharing a Facebook post that appeared to offer potential raffle prizes to anyone who showed their ballot at his rally.
The rally held Saturday did not have any raffle, following news reports of the potential issue.
This story was originally published March 2, 2021 at 8:15 PM.
