Vasquez, Farrell in runoff for Yuba supervisor seat

A week after voters cast ballots in the June primary election, one Yuba County supervisors race is headed to a runoff, while the other will see a four-term incumbent returned to office.

District 5 Supervisor Hal Stocker won a majority in his four-candidate race with 50.17 percent of the vote, or five votes more than he needed out of 3,223 cast.

Jenny Cavaliere, of Oregon House, was the next highest vote getter, at 17.75 percent. Two other candidates, Elden Fowler and Marc Barnum, had 16.57 and 15.20 percent, respectively.

Stocker won election in 1994, and said preserving his foothills district's rural character was his mandate from residents. His challengers said the county needed to do more to create jobs and businesses, particularly in the foothills.

Write-in candidate David Soares got 10 votes.

Incumbent Supervisor Andy Vasquez fell shy of a majority in District 1, with 48.1 percent of the vote. He will be in a runoff with Rachel Farrell, who had 35.9 percent of the vote. A third candidate, school board trustee Sandy Fonley, had 15.54 percent.

The runoff will pit small-business owner Vasquez, who was appointed last year by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to fill the uncompleted term of Assemblyman Dan Logue, R-Linda, against Farrell, CEO of Harmony Health and a political ally of Olivehurst-area Supervisor Mary Jane Griego.

Problems with a number of damaged ballots, along with processing problems on election night, led to delays for Yuba County's vote counting.

Sutter County completed its canvassing late last week.

CONTACT Ben van der Meer at 749-4709 or bvandermeer@appealdemocrat.com.