Tag: election

Key race in City Council election narrows to seven-vote difference District 3 race will decide which slate has majority

photo by Yucheng Tang
Monica McDaniel at the Green City Coalition watch party on election night.

by Yucheng Tang
posted Nov. 7

Nov. 8 UPDATE: The vote gap between Monica McDaniel and Dale Bennett narrowed to just seven votes as of 4:30 p.m. today, with Bennett receiving 3,009 votes and McDaniel 3,002. Updated vote counts will not be available until next week.

Whether challenger Monica McDaniel or incumbent Dale Bennett secures the District 3 seat has become the key question in the 2024 Chico City Council election.

The District 3 candidates are in a tight race; Bennett led McDaniel by only 40 votes Nov. 7, according to the Butte County Clerk-Recorder’s unofficial count that had been updated Nov. 6. The District 3 race will determine which slate will become a majority on the seven-member panel for the next two years. read more

For Which it Stands

photo by Tania Flores
Graffiti in Oakland, Calif.

by Danielle Alexich
guest contribution posted Nov. 6

I would give myself an A plus.
Nobody has done what I’ve been able to do.
–Donald Trump

Grade school mornings
we faced the flag,
hands over hearts,
pride of a nation pulsing inside us.
We compared report cards,
took cuts in line at recess,
played dodgeball in the thin Oakland fog.
Across town and on TV,
dark people got dragged away in handcuffs.
If we saw a drunk collapsed on the street,
we were told not to stare.
People dreamed of getting rich. read more

The PAC behind the negative mailers "A Better Chico" launches attacks on two liberal candidates

photo by Karen Laslo
Candidate Bryce Goldstein is attacked in a recent PAC mailer that exploits the problem of homelessness.

by Leslie Layton
posted Oct. 22

It cost the political action committee (PAC) A Better Chico some $14,000 to taint election season with a bitter mood by sending out four mailers that attack two City Council candidates who are running for the District 3 and 7 seats.

The two women, candidates Monica McDaniel and Bryce Goldstein, were each targeted with two mailers that make misleading and false statements that exploit the issue of homelessness by showing pictures of tent encampments, piles of litter and needles. read more

City Council District 5: What does a diverse neighborhood need?

by Yucheng Tang
posted Oct. 18

This is the third in ChicoSol’s City Council election series. Read our District 3 story here and our District 1 story here.

Renter rights. Pedestrian safety. The unhoused. These are the issues people living in District 5 care most about.

Kaylee Hudson, 29, a Chico State MBA student, worries most about pedestrian safety in the district. She came to Chico only five months ago, but has already been hit by a car while crossing the street downtown during the daytime. Hudson said the driver didn’t stop after hitting her. read more

Deadline approaches to vote for or against Tuscan Water District Some TWD residents say they had no chance to become board candidates

Landowners in the proposed Tuscan Water District received this ballot in the mail.

by Leslie Layton
posted Sept. 16

Ballots on whether to form the Tuscan Water District (TWD) in northwestern Butte County have been mailed to landowners — without any argument opposing a formation. The proposed district was the subject of debate for hours at public meetings earlier this year.

Only an argument in favor of formation of TWD -– which will have a landowner-based voting structure that will give the largest enterprises thousands of votes -– appears on the ballot that must be postmarked by Sept. 20. The ballot asks, with a single question, whether TWD should be approved with an annual parcel assessment of up to $10 per acre. Landowning voters can also choose nine people for the board of directors from a list of 11 candidates, most of whom are known already as TWD proponents. read more