Tag: General Election

Conservatives win 4-person majority on City Council

Mayor to be selected Dec. 4
by Yucheng Tang | Posted December 3, 2024

photo by Karen Laslo
Councilmember Dale Bennett was re-elected.

Incumbent Dale Bennett has retained the District 3 seat, defeating challenger Monica McDaniel by only 93 votes in the closest race in the 2024 Chico City Council election.

The majority of the City Council remains conservative, but the number of progressive councilmembers has increased from one to three. A special meeting of the City Council will be held at 6 p.m. Dec. 4 in the Council Chamber at 421 Main St. Newly-elected councilmembers will be sworn in and the mayor and vice mayor selected.

The Butte County Clerk’s office released the official results of the Nov. 5 General Election this morning, with County Clerk and Registrar of Voters Keaton Denlay certifying the election result.

Former Police Chief Michael O’Brien won the District 1 race against Mike Johnson with about a 10 percent margin. In District 5, Katie Hawley secured a clear victory over Melissa Lopez-Mora. Bryce Goldstein won the District 7 race, unseating incumbent Deepika Tandon. read more

The race between two Mikes

Two candidates vie for the Chico City Council's District 1 seat
by Yucheng Tang | Posted October 1, 2024

District 1 is an L-shaped area located west of the Esplanade and extending north to Fannie Drive and south to West 8th Avenue.

Editor: ChicoSol will cover the races for four City Council seats that voters will decide in the Nov. 5 General Election. The first in our series is District 1, where candidate Michael O’Brien has outspent opponent Michael Johnson by almost nine times. (See graphic below.)

Candidate Mike O’Brien is the head of Butte County Interagency Narcotics Task Force and a former Chico police chief; his opponent, Mike Johnson, is a businessman running an IT consulting business and a U.S. Navy officer.

ChicoSol interviewed and photographed Johnson on Sept. 17. O’Brien did not respond to requests for an interview that were delivered in texts, emails and phone calls. The two Mikes have both focused on homelessness, public safety and infrastructure improvements in their campaigns. But ChicoSol found their approaches quite different. read more

Voter turnout critical in Butte County; vote early, officials say

Experts say mail-in voting is safe; voter suppression is the problem
by Leslie Layton | Posted August 27, 2020

So-called “voter suppression laws” made it difficult for millions – many African American – to participate in the 2016 election. Turnout will be key in the upcoming General Election.

If you’re eligible to vote in the Nov. 3 General Election, Butte County Clerk-Recorder Candace Grubbs has a single, simple piece of advice: Don’t procrastinate.

To make sure your vote gets counted on election night, register or update your registration now. Vote when you receive your ballot in October. Call the Elections Office with questions, whether you speak English, Spanish or Hmong, Grubbs says.

But in what some people are calling a “vote-because-your-life-depends-on-it” election, there is plenty to worry about in terms of national polling. In some states, millions of people who have voted previously must re-register — and may not know that — because of tough and suppressive voter registration laws. read more