New results released tonight (Friday) show conservative Ed Gallo hanging on to a 21-vote lead over 18-year incumbent Lori Holt Pfeiler for the 3rd and last Escondido council seat up for grabs this year.
Like a basketball team rallying from behind, the Holt Pfeiler ‘moderates’ cut the previous Gallo lead down from 33 votes on Wednesday.
In the last week, Lori Holt Pfeiler has added 229 new votes to Gallo’s 167. In that same time the total uncounted ballots left in all of SD county has dropped from 45,000 to just 12,000.
So to continue the basketball analogy, the clock is now the biggest enemy for the Lori Holt Pfeiler team. There appear to be something like 150 votes remaining to tabulate in the Escondido playoff game.
Ed Gallo’s election could actually mean a 2-seat council swing for conservatives. Here is how that scenario might play out:
The new 5-member city council will have to fill a vacancy early next year, since conservative councilman Sam Abed was elected new Mayor on November 2nd. Should Gallo finally be seated, he may form a 3-vote majority with Sam Abed and Councilwoman Marie Waldron (who is a Rostra correspondent) to choose a 4th council member.
This was the best election cycle for conservative Escondidans in a decade.
Stay tuned to SD Rostra for further updates. This may be the closest local race of the November 2010 cycle.