District 2 county supervisor: Brown, De Serpa headed to runoff

Tuesday, March 19, 4:30 p.m.  — Capitola Mayor Kristen Brown and Pajaro Valley Unified School District trustee Kim De Serpa will head to a runoff in November for the District 2 county supervisor seat after securing first and second place, respectively, in the March 5 primary.

Tuesday’s vote update showed Brown continuing to lead all candidates at 32.75% (5,287 votes), with De Serpa in second at 25.26% (4,078 votes). David Schwartz will finish third, with 20.21%% (3,259 votes) through Friday’s count; Bruce Jaffe (17.17%) and Tony Crane (4.14%) rounded out the fourth and fifth slots.

Without any candidate eclipsing 50% of the vote share, the top two vote-getters advance to a head-to-head runoff in the November general election. 

The updated numbers put turnout in District 2 the race at 47.81%; countywide turnout sat at 46.3%.

Webber’s office still has an estimated 200 same-day registrations and 50 provisional ballots left to count. The next update is slated for Friday.

Previous updates

Friday, March 15, 4:45 p.m.  — A tally update Friday showed Brown continuing to lead all candidates at 32.75% (5,274 votes), with De Serpa in second at 25.27% (4,069 votes). David Schwartz will finish third, with 20.24% (3,259 votes) through Friday’s count; Bruce Jaffe (17.17%) and Tony Crane (4.1%) rounded out the fourth and fifth slots.

Monday, March 11, 4:30p.m.  — Another 2,539 ballots were added Monday to the count in the five-person election for District 2 county supervisor. The updated results show Capitola Mayor Kristen Brown and Kim De Serpa holding onto their sizable leads in a race that Lookout has called for a November runoff between Brown and De Serpa.  

Brown continues to lead all candidates at 32.7% (5,003 votes), with De Serpa in a distant second at 25.5% (3,906 votes). David Schwartz remains in third at 20.4% (3,120 votes), with Bruce Jaffe (16.9%) and Tony Crane (4%) rounding out the fourth and fifth slots.

Without any candidate eclipsing 50% of the vote share, the top two vote-getters will advance to a head-to-head runoff in the November general election. 

The updated numbers put turnout in District 2 the race at 45.2%. Santa Cruz County Clerk Tricia Webber estimated Wednesday that countywide turnout would hover around 41%. 

Webber will add another batch of ballots to the tally on Tuesday. Countywide, uncounted ballots included 2,200 vote-by-mail ballots, 700 same-day-registration ballots, 50 provisional ballots, 350 damaged ballots and however many ballots arrive in the mail by Tuesday’s mail drop.

Friday, March 8, 6:30 p.m.  — Another 3,189 ballots were added Friday to the count in the five-person election for District 2 county supervisor. The updated results show Capitola Mayor Kristen Brown and Kim De Serpa holding onto their significant leads in a race that seems destined for a November runoff.   

Brown continues to lead all candidates 32.8% (4,182 votes), with De Serpa in a distant second at 25.7% (3,285 votes). David Schwartz remains in third at 20.6% (2,611 votes), with Bruce Jaffe (16.7%) and Tony Crane (4.1%) rounding out the fourth and fifth slots.

Without any candidate eclipsing 50% of the vote share, the top two vote-getters will advance to a head-to-head runoff in the November general election.

Brown did not immediately return calls for comment; De Serpa said a runoff seemed all but certain. 

“Feeling happy that there are two well-prepared women advancing to a runoff on this International Women’s Day,” De Serpa told Lookout via text. “Very appreciative of the support in the community.” 

The 13,928 ballots county from District 2 voters puts turnout in the race at 37.6%. Santa Cruz County Clerk Tricia Webber estimated Wednesday that countywide turnout would hover around 41%. 

Webber will add more ballots to the tally Monday. Webber announced that, countywide, uncounted ballots included 11,950 vote-by-mail ballots, 700 same-day registration ballots, 50 provisional ballots, 450 damaged ballots and however many ballots arrive in the mail between Friday and Tuesday. 

Wednesday, March 6, 2 a.m. – With 10,739 votes counted in the final tally Tuesday night, Capitola Mayor Kristen Brown and Pajaro Valley Unified School District trustee Kim De Serpa were leading the District 2 county supervisor election, comfortably ahead of their opponents in a race that has long felt destined for a runoff.

Brown lead the five-candidate ballot with 32.5% of the vote; at 25.41%, De Serpa trailed by 701 votes. David Schwartz’s 2,016 votes put him third with a 20.39% vote share. Bruce Jaffe had 1,668 votes, for 16.87%, and Tony Crane had 425, or 4.3%.

To win this race outright, the leader needs to gain a 50% of the vote, which early results would seem to indicate is unlikely. The top two finishers would advance to the November general election. 

Brown said she feels comfortable heading into Wednesday. She said her performance in the election cycle’s many candidate forums gave her the chance to stand out among her opponents as someone with a firm grasp on how to tackle the county’s biggest issues.

“It’s still really early, but this is the culmination of a lot of hard work,” Brown said from her election night party at Britannia Arms in Capitola.

As she was preparing to leave her own party at the Hideout in Aptos, De Serpa said she was “feeling strong” and that the early results confirmed everyone’s guess that the election would require a runoff. She admitted she was not surprised to be joined by Brown as the top two vote-getters thus far.

“She’s an amazing candidate, we’re lucky to have two great women in this race,” De Serpa said.

Brown said she thought each candidate ran a campaign with good intentions, but she was similarly unsurprised that she and De Serpa were comfortably ahead as of Tuesday night. Schwartz was unavailable for comment late Tuesday.

That 10,739 vote total so far – which will see its next update on Friday, County Clerk Tricia Webber told Lookout – could account for more than 50% or so of the total vote in that race. That estimation is based on the percentage of registered voters –  47% – who voted in the 2022 primary; District 2 shows 36,930 registered voters. Of course, that percentage could vary in this election. 

De Serpa and Brown were the front-runners throughout the campaign to replace outgoing District 2 supervisor and current board chair Zach Friend. The race also featured Soquel Creek Water District board president Bruce Jaffe, small business owner and veteran David Schwartz and mortgage broker and general contractor Tony Crane.

Both de Serpa and Brown ran on their political experience. 

De Serpa is a social services manager at the Salinas Valley Health center and a longtime trustee of the Pajaro Valley Unified School District, who pointed to her success helping the school district improve its literacy rates by more than 50%.

Brown has served on the Capitola City Council since 2016 and currently holds the city’s rotating mayorship. She previously worked for former U.S. Rep. Sam Farr, and chairs the Regional Transportation Commission. She emphasized her experience in local government and strong relationships with state and federal officials.

District 2 stretches down the Monterey Bay coastline from Capitola down to Pajaro Dunes, encompassing the more suburban Aptos along with the rural tracts of Corralitos, Freedom and Amesti. 

In a county that is perennially strapped for cash, the sprawling district faces mounting infrastructure challenges, from a backlog of road repairs and rural telecommunications problems to coastal erosion threatening well-heeled beachfront communities. 

Both Brown and De Serpa told a Lookout candidate forum that they believed there was a need for more high-density housing to address the region’s affordability challenges. But the two diverged on their support for managed retreat – the idea of relocating houses, roads and other infrastructure away from the coastline to allow erosion to run its course. 

De Serpa, a resident of rural Aptos, said the county should be supporting the preservation of coastline properties while Brown said she supports building natural buffers to coastal erosion.

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