Election filing period ends for local races

Rick Monroe

Special to the Village News

Fallbrook Union High School District board incumbents Lita Tabish, Elana Sterling and Diane Summers didn’t file for the Nov. 8 general election, meaning the election period for those campaigns – geographic areas – was extended from Aug. 12 to Aug. 17.

At Monday’s newspaper deadline, the county Registrar of Voters was still reviewing paperwork submitted by candidates in many of the local races and the final candidate list is pending. However, there will be no additions, a spokesperson said. Numerous candidates are “in process” “pending” for being qualified for the ballot, but they are not official – but likely will be, the spokesperson explained.

In Area 1 of the FUHSD, Jim Dooley is designated as qualified and Courtney Hilborn as pending. In Area 2, no one has filed. In Area 3, Karen Weisberger has qualified, Jennifer Sexton pending, and Paul Christiansen has taken out papers but not filed. The deadline for each area was extended to Wednesday, again past the newspaper deadline.

In all of the school districts, as well as most of the other districts, there are five board members, each serving four years but on a different cycle. Trustees elected in 2020 will serve through 2024. Most districts converted from at-large elections to geographic voting areas after the 2018 election, so most “incumbents” were elected at-large.

All three incumbents in the Fallbrook Union Elementary School District have qualified for the ballot for re-election. In Area 1, Caron Lieber is being challenged by Diane Sebal (pending). In Area 4, incumbent Susan Liebes will be on the ballot with Krystal Lee and Stacey McRae. In Area 5, JoAnn Lopez is challenged by Mary McBride (pending).

In the Bonsall Unified School District, two of the three incumbents up for election are running again. In Area A, incumbent Lou Riddle has not taken out papers and there is only one challenger, Pascal Lapoirie. However, that area’s filing period was extended to Aug. 15, past the newspaper deadline, because the incumbent didn’t take out papers. In Area B, incumbent Michael Gaddis has filed but his status is pending. His opponent is Richard Bruck. In Area D, incumbent Roger Merchat has qualified and there are two challengers, Beth Klopfenstein and Mark Jones.

The deadline for the short-term Area 1 of the Vallecitos School District was extended since incumbent Heather Reinhardt and no challenger took out papers. In Area 3, incumbent Martin Kurland alone qualified for the ballot, and likewise in Area 5 with appointed incumbent Melissa Cox alone on the ballot.

Norma Miyamoto of Fallbrook is seeking re-election to the Palomar College Board of Trustees representing Area 5. Her qualification is pending, as is that of challenger Jacqueline Kaiser.

The candidate filing process also concluded Friday in other local special districts including fire, health care, water, community planning, etc.

For the Fallbrook Community Planning Group, there are seven seats up for election with 15 potential candidates. Qualified for the ballot are incumbents Steve Brown, Jeniene Domercq and Mark Mervich. Also qualified are challengers Krystal Lee and Peter Wilson. Incumbent Eileen Delaney, group chairperson, is on the pending list, along with Lisa Lynn Geffeney, Kelly Hansen, Keri Ann Hoyer, Michele McCaffery, J.J. Neese, Tauna Rodarte, Scott Spencer, Victoria Stover, and Debbie Williams. Tara Enyeart took out papers, but they were not filed. This race is decided by voters at-large.

The Rainbow Community Planning Group, also elected at-large, has seven candidates seeing five positions. The qualified list includes incumbents Douglas Gastelum, Martin Kurland and Frederick Rasp, as well as appointed incumbents Lynne Malinowski and Michele Sheehan. There are two challengers listed as pending: Erin Maturo and Guy Maturo.

Each of the three seats on the Fallbrook Regional Health District will have an incumbent (one appointed) facing a single challenger. In Zone 1, incumbent Jennifer Jeffries is challenged by Sydney Lay (pending). In Zone 3, appointed incumbent William Leach faces Margie Mosavi. In Zone 5, director Howard Salmon is opposed by Terry Brown.

In the Fallbrook Public Utility District, incumbents Kenneth Endter in Division 2 and Charley Wolk in Division 5 are seeking another term and there are currently no challengers.

There are also contested races for two seats on the North County Fire District board. Appointed director Ross Pike’s qualification is pending in Division 1 and Chris Shaw has qualified in Division 2.

In the Rainbow Municipal Water District, there are two races: In Division 3, appointed director Miguel Gasca is challenged by Greg Irvine. In Division 4, appointed incumbent Bill Stewart is challenged by Patricia Townsend-Smith (both pending qualification).

In the San Luis Rey Municipal Water District, incumbents William Pankey and Thomas Veysey are both unopposed in Divisions 1 and 3, respectively. No one has taken out papers for Division 4 (short term) or Division 5 at the Aug. 12 deadline, so it was extended to Aug. 17 (past deadline).

In the District 5 Board of Supervisors race, Jim Desmond is being opposed by Tiffany Boyd-Hodgson.

For updated information, go to https://www.sdvote.com and search for the Candidate List.