District 5 Santa Cruz City Council: O’Hara wins over Thompson

Tuesday, March 19, 5:10 p.m. — Susie O’Hara will return to the City of Santa Cruz, but this time the former longtime public servant will be on the dais after securing a win over Joe Thompson to represent District 5.

O’Hara had received 844 votes as of Tuesday, or 59.2% of the vote to Thompson’s 40%, or 571 votes. With just about 250 votes still left to tally countywide, Thompson won’t be able to close the 273-vote gap.

A water engineer and former assistant to the city manager, O’Hara will be one of two fresh faces on Santa Cruz city council starting in January, joining newly elected Gabriela Trigueiro in District 1.

“I’m feeling really good,” O’Hara told Lookout on Tuesday afternoon, noting the slow process to count ballots in a district with many same-day voter. “The campaign I ran was just very much focused on my experience and my love for Santa Cruz and just wanting to make a difference here. I think that resonated with with voters, students and neighbors alike, so I’m really proud of that.”

She added that she has been speaking with other local elected officials to put together a plan for the start of her term over the next few months and congratulated Thompson on a strong campaign.

“I think it really boils down to the distinction between the two of us was about time in Santa Cruz and time of experience on city policy,” she said. “I just want to compliment Joe for running a fantastic campaign and being really strong competitor and I honestly hope to work with them if they’re interested, moving forward once I’m in the seat.”

Thompson, a UCSC student, said via text message: “I’m glad the election is over and that almost all the votes have been counted but I’m disappointed in the outcome and hope that this shows how important it is for everyone to turnout and vote.”

Previous updates

Friday, March 15, 4:30 p.m. — The latest vote tally for the District 5 seat on the Santa Cruz City Council saw Susie O’Hara maintain her large lead over Joe Thompson. The gap between the two candidates stayed largely the same, but Thompson gained a bit of ground — out of 1,300 total votes cast, O’Hara had 826, or 63.54% of the votes, while Thompson had 463 votes for 35.62%. 

Monday, March 11, 4:30 p.m. — The latest vote tally for the District 5 seat on the Santa Cruz City Council saw Susie O’Hara maintain her large lead over Joe Thompson. The gap between the two candidates stayed largely the same — out of 1,202 total votes cast, O’Hara had 786, or 65.39% of the votes, while Thompson had 406 votes for 33.78%.

O’Hara told Lookout on Friday evening that she remains “cautiously optimistic” about the results thus far, but that there is still room for things to change.

“There’s still no same-day registrants included in the count, and that’s going to be the determining factor,” she said. 

In a district that includes a large portion of UC Santa Cruz, the votes of same-day registrants could have an impact on the race, given that students often register on the same day as the vote.

Friday, March 8, 5 p.m. – The latest vote tally for the open District 5 seat on the Santa Cruz City Council reaffirmed Susie O’Hara’s large lead over Joe Thompson. The gap between the two candidates stayed largely the same — out of 1,134 total votes cast, O’Hara had 741, or 65.34% of the votes, while Thompson had 384 votes for 33.86%.

O’Hara told Lookout on Friday evening that she remains “cautiously optimistic” about the results thus far, and was happy to see a lot of votes added to Friday’s tally. However, she isn’t getting too comfortable yet.

“There’s still no same-day registrants included in the count, and that’s going to be the determining factor,” she said. 

In a district that includes a large portion of UC Santa Cruz, the votes of same-day registrants may have an impact on the race, given that students often register on the same day as the vote.

Wednesday, March 6, 2 a.m. – The final election day returns from the races for Santa Cruz City Council gave Susie O’Hara a large lead over Joe Thompson in an open seat for District 5. However, those numbers represented only 836 votes. Still, O’Hara had 523, or 66.45% of the votes, while Thompson had 256 votes for 32.53%.

The candidates were meeting with supporters and volunteers from their respective campaigns at neighboring pizza restaurants in downtown Santa Cruz. Thompson, a UC Santa Cruz student who graduates in June, gathered with supporters at Woodstock Pizza for a post-election party. The union organizer, who has been campaigning for more than a year, said that if victorious, they hope to represent students on the city council.

“For me,” said Thompson, “it’ll still be about going to city council meetings to stand up and say, ‘This is what students want. This is what students are asking for.'”

Over at Pleasure Pizza on Pacific Avenue, O’Hara said she didn’t spend election day any differently than other days in the campaign: “My husband and I probably made about 300 or 400 calls, just making sure that folks were getting out to vote.”

O’Hara said that, despite her early lead, she didn’t have a sense of how the race would turn out. “It’s totally a leap into the unknown,” she said. “And I feel like the door-knocking in the last three weeks gave me a little bit of a sense of what people want. But you can’t talk to everybody.”

Meanwhile, Thompson said, win or lose, “I’m still taking midterms. And I have a class I have to get to tomorrow.”

District 5 holds part of the UC Santa Cruz campus and is bounded by High Street to the south and the Highway 1/Highway 17 junction. The district was up for grabs because incumbent at-large councilmember Sandy Brown is termed out at the end of 2024.

Both O’Hara and Thompson have a connection to UCSC and both have also been in the public eye for raising issues around poor working conditions.

Water engineer O’Hara is a former assistant to the city manager who publicly testified about toxic workplace conditions associated with a city investigation that led to the recall of councilmembers Chris Krohn and Drew Glover in 2020. O’Hara filed a $1.2 million claim against the City in 2022. The claim was settled out of court.

O’Hara campaigned on her experience as a longtime public servant who has sat on several boards and commissions. She also told a Lookout candidate forum that she wants to put in significant effort in making the Tannery Arts Center on River Street a community hub, use the area’s arts culture to drive the local economy, improve the efficiency of city services and expand the response to homelessness.

She opposed Measure M, the ballot measure seeking to require more affordable housing in new high-rise construction and restrict the city’s ability to build taller without a public vote. O’Hara, who lives on the UCSC campus, where her husband teaches history, has also argued that UC students should have just as much say in the community as longtime residents.

UCSC student Joe Thompson successfully worked to form the first Starbucks union in California as a teenager after experiencing poor working conditions as a barista at the coffee chain’s downtown Santa Cruz location. 

Thompson previously ran for office in the spring of 2022, when they ran for state Assemblymember against Gail Pellerin. They later worked as the field director for Pellerin on her state Assembly campaign that fall and in the office of East Bay state Sen. Aisha Wahab.

Supported by the left-wing flank of the area’s Democratic Party, Thompson broke with some of the city’s established progressive organizations in opposing Measure M, which they argued would slow down much-needed housing development.

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FOR THE RECORD: This story was updated to correct the description of Susie O’Hara’s testimony about toxic workplace conditions and the description of her 2022 claim against the city.

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