By Perry Smith and Kamryn Martell
Signal Staff Writers
The local election races promised historic change Tuesday, with two new guaranteed Santa Clarita City Council members following an election, for the first time in a quarter-century.
There were also two school board races for the valleywide William S. Hart Union High School District expected to be competitive, each with two candidates from opposing parties in the nonpartisan school board races.
The retirements of two current council members, with the implementation of the city’s second-ever district-based election, created a political stage ripe for change.
City Council members Marsha McLean and Bill Miranda both declined to run this year, with a third council member, Mayor Laurene Weste, seeking re-election.
None of the races had been called as of this story’s publication, but there were early returns from voters for Districts 2, 4 and 5.
The Signal was able to cover the local Republicans’ watch party Tuesday evening, but the SCV Democrats denied media access to their local watch party.
City Council District 2
District 2, the city’s westernmost, runs along Interstate 5 and the city boundary north to the Rye Canyon Road business park, south along the Santa Clara River, then east along Soledad Canyon Road to Golden Valley Road before turning south to Newhall. The open seat has three candidates: Brett Haddoak, Denise Lite and Gloria Mercado-Fortine.
After a bruising race, Lite and Haddoak remained less than a percentage point apart in the early returns, with Lite up 39.83% to 39.07%, less than 100 votes between them after the first ballot drop.
The campaign rhetoric for this race in particular felt especially sharp, particularly online, where Lite was the focus of a negative blog post and a mailer sent to thousands. It had laudatory praise for her opponents, Mercado-Fortine and Haddoak.
That same site also criticized Haddoak with name-calling and for not identifying himself as the owner of a website portrayed as an “independent voter guide.”
Mercado-Fortine denied any involvement in the site during a phone interview Friday.
This was Lite’s second campaign attempt, following a bid for an at-large seat in the 2022 race.
She said she thought she was prepared this time around, but she “grossly underestimated” what folks would be willing to do to win.
“I have always perceived Santa Clarita as this nice, friendly little bubble where we see each other every weekend at charity events and other events,” Lite said, “and I never imagined that Santa Clarita politics would take a turn as it did this year.”
Mercado-Fortine did not respond to a call Tuesday evening.
Haddoak said he wasn’t surprised at all by the mudslinging, calling the criticism of his voter guide someone “making a mountain out of a grain of sand,” in a phone interview Tuesday.
City Council District 4
District 4’s western boundary is Copper Hill and Northpark drives in Valencia. It runs east along the city’s northern border to District 5 in Canyon Country, with the Santa Clara River, just north of Soledad Canyon Road, as its southern edge.
There was no incumbent in the race with it being the district’s first election, but Weste ran against Jeffrey Berman, Valerie Bradford, Nick Somers and Peter Yahiayan.
Weste led by a large margin in the early returns, taking 52.48%, or 5,416 votes, compared to Bradford 28.73%, (2,965 votes) and Somers, 13.04% (1,346 votes)
As a sitting council member, Weste was not one of the candidates calling for significant change, but she knew it was possible. She talked about how Santa Clarita was a safe place to raise a family, and she wanted to keep it that way.
“If there’s change, we just need to maintain and remember, ‘What’s the right thing for the greater good of Santa Clarita,’” she said Tuesday.
City Council District 5
The boundaries for District 5 are pretty much Canyon Country, east of districts 1 and 4, along the city’s eastern edge and south into parts of Newhall, but not much north of Via Princessa.
The candidates who ran were Liliia Chernova, Kelvin Driscoll and Bob Khalsa.
Driscoll led in the early returns with 49.77% (5,325 votes) compared to Khalsa, 41.45% (4,435) and Chernova in third, 8.87% (955 votes).
Driscoll, who was the only one in his race with campaign experience, said this experience was very different from his 2020 Assembly run, which happened in the middle of the pandemic.
The initial returns left him very hopeful, he said.
“I think obviously what we’re seeing across the country tonight means that people have expectations of their government, and so I think that that is not just reflected at the federal and the state level, but it’s reflected right here at the city level, too,” Driscoll said. “So I’m encouraged by what I see.”
Voters favor Messina, Brooks in early counts for Hart District election
As ballots began to roll in on Election Day, it seems that Julee Brooks and Joe Messina were favored in the early counting for the Trustee Area 2 and Trustee Area 5 seats on the William S. Hart Union High School District on Tuesday evening.
In the midterm election, four candidates were on the ballot – Joe Messina and Stacy Fortner for the Trustee Area 5 seat and Julee Brooks and Bryan Biggers for the Trustee Area 2 seat.
During The Signal’s debate in early October, the four candidates had an opportunity to speak about their plans if elected.
Brooks said she prioritized safety concerns at schools, while Biggers voiced concerns about the fiscal challenges facing the district.
Messina mentioned during the October debate that one of his concerns is money and the declining enrollment throughout the district. Fortner discussed three priorities: ensuring the district’s academic opportunities can continue to grow, the fiscal responsibility to ensure long-term stability, and listening and building trust.
On Tuesday evening, emotions were high as each candidate shared how they were feeling.
Biggers said he was thrilled the campaigning was over because it was a lot of work, but having the personal touch throughout the process is the gold standard to do this.
“There’s enough voters where, obviously, we’re not going to meet each of them individually, but conversations, or even, I think, even things like when we’re standing on the corner with a sign, they see a real person smiling (and) waving,” Biggers said. “I think that makes a difference for a lot of people. And then you try to get the information out there to let them know what you’re about. So those people who do research and dig, they can find out.”
Biggers added that it was interesting to have the opportunity to serve in the community that he grew up in.
Biggers said that he had one week to think about going for the seat.
“I had about a week to think about it, make the decision, and file with the county. And so, and it was, like, right before the final deadlines,” Biggers said.
“So, we had one of the shortest campaigns. I believe my opponent had been running nearly a year. Lots of chances to build momentum. (We had to) build a base, get the message out there, and raise funds. And so, we were less than 10 weeks out, starting at zero. And so, we hustled a lot of people came around me. It was amazing.”
When asked what he believed was effective in his campaign to voters, Messina said it is the same message he has been giving for a long time — “I care about the kids.”
“We need to get our kids ready … and we need to let them know that there are other opportunities for them other than going to a four-year college. Now, they can go after it if they want to, but I want them to have opportunities, truly have opportunities,” Messina said.
Messina said one of his concerns for this election was the late turnout of Republican voters.
“My concern was that a lot of Republicans took a long time to come out and vote, and some didn’t come out to vote at all because they felt like it was a lost cause. And that’s too bad that we’ve got to that point where people give up so early, right? And Democrats have always been known for coming out early,” Messina said. “It’s just the way it’s always been and Republicans seem to show up at the last minute. So, I’m hoping the charge, the cry had been put out there, and that people came to the polls tonight and voted. We saw a major spike earlier.”
Messina added that if it becomes a close race and he wins, he wants to know why people did not vote for him and understand their reasons.
Stacy Fortner, Messina’s opponent, said she felt great going into the election, adding that she knocked on the doors and put in the work for her campaign.
“I think that getting out there and actually knocking on the doors and not leaving stuff on porches but actually talking to voters and having a face-to-face conversation makes all the difference in the world. I’m not a person who’s going to put something on your doorknob and walk away,” Fortner said.
One message Fortner hopes voters took away was that she is willing to listen and is not afraid to take on the difficult issues and be accountable for it all.
“I mean, this is all about supporting education, and it’s about the kids and the teachers and the staff, and the facilities, and the curriculum. And all of the other stuff that they try to drag into the boardroom is just not beneficial to educating our kids. And I am all about no nonsense and just focusing on how to be fiscally responsible with our budget,” Fortner said.
She added that she was excited, hopeful, and feeling positive going into the evening – saying she would not have “sour grapes” about the outcome.
Brooks was unavailable for comment as of the publication of this story.
