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Margaret Mims, an assistant sheriff for Fresno County, will succeed Sheriff Richard Pierce in January. The long vote count has ended and Mims edged out Cal Minor, the retired Highway Patrol captain. On Wednesday afternoon, the latest count out of the Fresno County Elections Office put Mims at 84,444 votes or 50.2% to 83,427 or 49.62% for Minor.
It took 15 days to finish the count because of the closeness of the race and the large number of absentee and provisional ballots to tally. Actually, the count isn't completed. . . There are 200 to 300 ballots still to count, but they will not change the results.
Fresno County will have its first woman sheriff.
We may not find out who our next sheriff is today after all. Fresno County Clerk Victor Salazar said there were a lot more absentee and provisional ballots to count than he first thought, and he may not be done until next week. At 4 p.m., we will see the results of the 17,000 ballots that were counted since last week.
If Assistant Sheriff Margaret Mims' lead grows substantially, there may be enough votes counted to call the race for her. But if Cal Minor, the retired California Highway Patrol captain, cuts into Mims' 740-lead, the winner will still be up in the air until next week. It's all about the math. Stay tuned.
The new sheriff will succeed Sheriff Richard Pierce in January
Fresno County elections officials say they'll have the remainder of the ballots counted in the sheriff's race by Friday, and plan a 4 p.m. release of the totals that day. Most observers believe that Assistant Sheriff Margaret Mims will prevail over Cal Minor, the retired captain from the California Highway Patrol.
Mims' lead has grown from 155 votes to 740 as of the last count and there is little reason to think that Minor can reverse the trend when the last 10,000 votes are counted on Friday. But you never know until the final results are released.
The new sheriff will actually succeed Sheriff Richard Pierce in January. Pierce's successor will inherit all sorts of problems, including a budget deficit, a lack of jail space that has allowed some prisoners to be released early and terrible morale problems among the deputies and other department employees.
All in all, Pierce is leaving the next sheriff with quite a mess.
Editor's note: Because of the intense interest in the Fresno County sheriff's race, we have reposted this blog item so that it is near the top of the blog listing. The item was first published on Sept. 1.
On Tuesday, Cal Minor and Margaret Mims appeared before The Bee's Editorial Board to discuss their campaigns for Fresno County sheriff. They appeared separately. We taped both appearances. Here's the link if you'd like to hear what they said. Click on the information box to access each session.
These sessions reflect what occurs at a typical Editorial Board meeting. Each meeting ran about 45 minutes. Editorial Board members and Bee reporters asked questions about issues in the campaign, the candidates' backgrounds and their vision for the office.
Minor is a retired California Highway Patrol captain and Mims is an assistant sheriff in the Fresno County Sheriff's Department. They survived the June primary and the winner on Nov. 7 will become sheriff in January.
Assistant Sheriff Margaret Mims, long considered the underdog in the race for Fresno County sheriff against Cal Minor, the retired California Highway Patrol captain, appears to be pulling away in the long count of absentee ballots. This afternoon, the county elections office counted the batch of absentee ballots that arrived on election day and Mims' lead went from 155 votes to 740. The problem for Minor is that throughout the count, Mims has captured a greater share of absentees. There is no reason to think that Minor can reverse that trend as the remaining absentees and provisional ballots -- as many as 10,000 -- are counted over the next week.
One of the reasons that Mims has done better in absentees is that she targeted absentee voters, and Minor did not. That's a huge failure by Minor's campaign, and could cost him the election. Running an aggressive absentee program is a compulsory event in an era when more and more voters are casting absentee ballots. This mistake by the Minor campaign is monumental.
There are still about 10,000 absentee and provisional ballots to count, according to elections officials. It's conceiveable that Minor could make up the ground, although unlikely. His capture rate so far has been well below the percentage of ballots that he must win to close the widening gap. His campaign has to be hoping that somehow a huge chunk of his absentees were turned in at one of the polls, and the vote count will move in his favor.
One complicating factor is the large number of provisional ballots. Those are ballots cast by voters whose voting status was unclear when they showed up at the precincts. They could have been at the wrong precinct or for some reason weren't on the voter rolls. Minor's camp must hope that those voters favored him and their status is cleared up so their votes will count.
It should all be resolved by next Friday, which is the target for completing the vote count.
If I were a betting man, I'd put my money on Margaret Mims being Fresno County's first woman sheriff.
With all the momentum in the Fresno County sheriff's race seemingly going with Cal Minor, a retired California Highway Patrol captain, Margaret Mims, an assistant sheriff, got a big boost on Wednesday. Fresno Mayor Alan Autry and eight other mayors of cities in Fresno County endorsed Mims' bid for sheriff in the Nov. 7 election.
Here's Kerri Ginis' story in today's Bee.
This is what Autry said about Mims: "This is about the person who can best do the job and take care of the county," he said. "I know Margie Mims. I've seen what she has done and I know what she can do."
Minor responded to the endorsements this way: "I'd much rather have the support of law enforcement," said Minor, who has been endorsed by deputy sheriffs, correctional officers and Fresno police officers. "They're the people out there day in and out."
Fresno County sheriff's candidate Cal Minor has picked up a huge endorsement in his runoff campaign against Assistant Sheriff Margaret Mims. He just got the backing of the Service Employees International Union Local 535. It's the largest union in the county and includes about 600 sheriff's employees. Here's Kerri Ginis' story in today's Bee.
But this is a big change from the primary when Tom Abshere, the union's representative, castigated The Bee for endorsing Minor. In May, Abshere fired off a letter to the editor that ripped into Minor and the newspaper editorial we wrote backing him. Here are the first two paragraphs of Abshere's May 19 letter:
"The Bee thinks Cal Minor can clean up the Sheriff's Department. The Bee knows that Minor's supporters include the people the attorney general mentioned in his report as being part of the problem. How can Mr. Minor clean up the mess if he surrounds himself with those causing the mess?
"Mr. Minor has no experience in running the jail, which is more than 50% of the Sheriff's Department. He has no experience as a homicide or narcotics detective, yet he is going to solve our drug problems. He wants to remove deputies from our kids' schools. Will that action make our kids safer?"
Now Abshere's union thinks Minor is the best candidate. Here's Abshere's quote today: "We thought he was the best one, out of the two candidates that were left, that could change the image of the department and move the department forward."
Very curious indeed.
Fresno Republican Mike Der Manouel Jr. says in a GOP political blog that Cal Minor, a retired California Highway Patrol captain, will easily defeat Assistant Sheriff Margaret Mims in the November runoff election for Fresno County sheriff. The main reason, according to Der Manouel, is Fresno County is a solid Republican county. Minor is a Republican and Mims is a Democrat. Der Manouel predicts a landslide for Minor. Read his blog posting in the FlashReport here.
It's not surprising that Der Manouel, chairman of the Lincoln Club of Fresno County, would go with Minor given his opposition to anything and anyone connected to the Democratic Party. But Minor has to be considered the favorite after running first in the June primary in a five-person race.
Mims, though, won't be a walk-over, and Minor supporters could be surprised at the aggressive campaign that Mims is planning for the runoff election. This campaign could get very nasty because both candidates have soft spots that can be exploited.
Cal Minor, a retired California Highway Patrol captain, who finished first in the primary election for Fresno County sheriff, has been endorsed by one of his opponents. That should be helpful in his runoff campaign. Sheiriff's Capt. Colleen Mestas, who finished fourth in the five-person race, has announced she is backing Minor. Here's the story.
Assistant Sheriff Margaret Mims, who finished second and is in the runoff with Minor, earlier was endorsed by sheriff's deputy Chris Curtice, who ran last. Only third-place finisher Jose Flores, a sheriff's captain, has not backed a candidate in the runoff election. "I'm weighing my options," Flores said in a story in today's Bee.
In the primary, Minor led the pack with 37.4% of the vote and Mims got into the runoff by polling 28%
This race is going to heat up now that it's a one-on-one contest between Minor and Mims. Both are law enforcement veterans and the two campaigns undoubtedly will be scouring their opponents' backgrounds looking for anything they can use in the general election campaign.
This is an open seat. Sheriff Richard Pierce announced in January that he wasn't going to seek a third term. But this race will be all about Pierce. The sheriff's political problems, including conflict-of-interest allegations, will continue to be key issues in the campaign.
Chris Curtice, a sheriff's deputy who finished fifth in the five-person race for Fresno County sheriff on June 6 with just under 6% of the vote, has endorsed Assistant Sheriff Margaret Mims in her runoff with Cal Minor, a retired California Highway Patrol captain. Minor finished first with 37.4% of the vote, followed by Mims with 28%.
The question now is who will Sheriff's Captain Jose Flores, who received 15.1% of the vote, and Sheriff's Captain Colleen Mestas, who received 13.4% of the vote, support in the runoff?
Here's part of Curtice's statement that was issued today:
"Assistant Sheriff Mims is the best choice for the department and for Fresno County voters," Curtice said.
"The campaign process, getting to know the candidates, and debating with them proved to me that Margaret has a real grasp of the issues facing the department and offers the best choice to solve problems and address the issues that face the department," Curtice said.
"It is clear to me that the department requires the experience that Assistant Sheriff Mims has to offer," Curtice added. "She has worked for over two decades in the Fresno County Sheriff's Department and has worked under three different sheriffs."
The November runoff election for Fresno County sheriff will pit two veteran law enforcement officers against each other. Cal Minor, a retired California Highway Patrol captain, led a five-candidate field Tuesday, but was not close to getting enough votes to avoid a runoff. As of 11:55 p.m., Minor had 37.4% to 28.1% for Margaret Mims, an assistant sheriff.
For most of the night, the vote count showed Minor and Mims separating themselves from the rest of the field. Tuesday's results set up an interesting runoff election. Minor, 57, worked for the CHP for 33 years before retiring in 2003. Mims, 51, is a 23-year veteran of the Sheriff's Department.
Both have long records in law enforcement and you can bet that the opposing campaigns will be digging into the candidates' backgrounds looking for something to exploit in the fall campaign. We saw some of that in the primary, but not nearly as much as is likely in the runoff.
Here's how the other candidates in the race fared: Sheriff's Capt. Jose "Joe" Flores was third with 15.2% of the vote, followed by Capt. Colleen Mestas with 13.3%. Deputy Chris Curtice was fifth with 5.9%.
Cal Minor, who had most of the traditional endorsements for Fresno County sheriff, was hardly a surprise in taking an early lead after the absentee ballots were counted shortly after 8 p.m. Assistant Sheriff Margaret Mims was running a strong second and could be headed to a November runoff with Minor if the vote totals hold throughout the night. Minor, a retired California Highway Patrol captain, had 36.6% to 31% for Mims.
But Mims' early showing is somewhat of a surprise. The political experts thought that Sheriff's Capt. Colleen Mestas would be Minor's main rival. Mestas was running fourth.
Sheriff's Capt. Jose "Joe" Flores was third with 14% of the vote, followed by Mestas with 12%. Deputy Chris Curtice was fifth with 6.6%.
This is based on absentee votes and there are still many votes to be counted. But the returns give us a good taste of what we can expect the rest of the evening.
Editor's note: Because of the intense interest in the Fresno County sheriff's race, we have reposted this blog item so that it is at the top of the blog listing. The item was first published on May 14.
The next Fresno County sheriff must turn around a department that has been damaged by the questionable activities of the current sheriff. This isn't the time for someone who will offer tentative leadership. Fresno County's next sheriff must be committed to bold action and a willingness to make big changes.
It was not an easy decision for us. But after weighing the strengths and weaknesses of the five candidates in the race, The Bee's Editorial Board has decided to support retired California Highway Patrol Capt. Cal Minor for sheriff in the June 6 primary election. Here's our editorial explaining our reasoning.
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