Martinez wins District 5 Santa Cruz County supervisor race

Tuesday, Dec. 3, 5:45 p.m. — Monica Martinez, chief executive of the county’s largest health and human services nonprofit, has won her bid to become the next Santa Cruz County supervisor for District 5.

Martinez, who has held a comfortable lead since the early voting tallies began trickling in, maintained her lead over Christopher Bradford 56.6% to 43.1% with the latest vote drop Tuesday afternoon.

County Clerk Tricia Webber’s office said Tuesday’s update was the last and the results are now official. All totaled countywide, 136,505 votes have been counted.

Martinez said of the results: “I feel confident I will be the next District 5 Santa Cruz County supervisor.”

“These results show that my message about moving our community forward really resonated with voters. Voters are ready for someone who has my type of experience in this really important seat.”

Martinez declined to comment on Bradford or his campaign, which, like Martinez’s,  promised to shake up the status quo.  

Bradford has said he would be ready to concede once 100% of the votes were counted.

“We’ll lose when we lose,” Bradford said. 

Martinez painted herself as a knowledgeable outsider — someone who understood the tangled cables of government through her nonprofit work, but hadn’t held elected office and thus wasn’t beholden to political interests. At 42 years old, she also presented herself as offering an energetic spark to a seat that has been held by Bruce McPherson for the past 12 years. 

Martinez has spent the past 14-plus years leading two of the most prominent nonprofits in Santa Cruz County. She was hired as executive director of what is now Housing Matters in 2010, at the age of 28. She held that post until 2014, when she stepped into the CEO role at Encompass Community Services, where she currently serves. 

“I feel really happy to be the front-runner, but I want to make sure every vote is counted,” Martinez said. 

Bradford, a community organizer and information technology professional with Joby Aviation, was also surrounded Tuesday night by family and supporters inside Henflings Bar and Grill in Ben Lomond. Bradford said he remained hopeful despite being down 16 points. If anything, he said, he was expecting to be down by more after the first tally. 

“A big chunk of our supporters voted on Election Day, so this is pretty much how we anticipated it,” Bradford said. “Anyone counting anything right now as final is foolish, whether that’s national or local.”

District 5 encompasses much of the county’s mountain region, spanning from Scotts Valley to the Highway 9 corridor, wrapping in the rugged communities of Felton, Ben Lomond, Zayante and Boulder Creek. The region has been rocked by an unrelenting series of natural disasters — from the 2020 CZU wildfire to the 2023 and 2024 winter storms — that have shaped the politics and priorities of the residents. The roads are crumbling, the post-disaster rebuild has sputtered, and utilities are struggling to provide service. The challenges have led mountain residents to fear they are being left behind by the county government. 

Martinez and Bradford each campaigned as an outsider intent on shaking up the status quo. Martinez, 42, of Felton, has worked as a nonprofit chief executive since she was 28 years old, and currently leads Encompass Community Services, the county’s largest health and human services nonprofit. 

Bradford, 45 and a Boulder Creek resident, is an information technology professional with Joby Aviation, but has made a name for himself over the past four years as an organizer who galvanized the community following the CZU wildfire and the recent failure of the Big Basin Water Company.   

Both candidates have put the wildfire rebuild and road improvements as pillars of their platforms. In September, Martinez described for Lookout the urgency she feels to be effective right on Day 1 and would use her seat to steer county policy toward expediting the CZU rebuild, building more affordable housing and taking advantage of state and federal grants and loans the county has been missing out on for its own programs. 

Bradford’s pitch to voters has been one of presence and consistency. He, too, said he would begin working immediately to clear up logjams in the CZU rebuild and find money for funding, even if it means cutting other areas of the budget. Bradford has also emphasized his plan to meet regularly with constituents and be responsive to their needs, something both candidates and residents say outgoing supervisor Bruce McPherson has failed to do in recent years. 

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