Menlo Park election: Vote-rich Willows area goes for Fergusson, Cohen (December 08, 2004)

** Support of central Menlo Park, Sharon Heights, Belle Haven not enough for other City Council candidates.

By Rebecca Wallace

Almanac Staff Writer

The vote-rich Willows neighborhood turned out to be friendly turf on November 2 for Kelly Fergusson and Andrew Cohen, who were elected to the Menlo Park City Council with a little help from their Willows friends.

According to precinct totals released last week by San Mateo County elections officials, the two candidates, who supported each other and shared many values and goals, handily took the four precincts in the Willows area. Ms. Fergusson won 1,291 votes and Mr. Cohen tallied 1,133.

In comparison, Lorie Sinnott took 671 votes in the Willows and Michael Lambert won 694.

A Willows resident, Ms. Fergusson has been active in her neighborhood and has published a local newsletter.

The four candidates were competing for two four-year seats on the council made available by the decisions of Paul Collacchi and Chuck Kinney not to run again. Citywide, Ms. Fergusson came in first place with 6,382 votes. She was followed by Mr. Cohen with 5,616, Ms. Sinnott with 5,570, and Mr. Lambert with 5,255.

In contrast to the Willows, central Menlo Park went heavily for Ms. Sinnott and Mr. Lambert. Five precincts in the central area contain a large chunk of the city's electorate, but the vote gap between winners and losers there was not as broad as in the Willows.

Ms. Sinnott netted 1,488 in the five precincts, and Mr. Lambert took 1,295. The vote counts for Ms. Fergusson and Mr. Cohen were 1,197 and 1,107, respectively.

Downtown, Ms. Fergusson and Mr. Cohen were victorious overall in the three precincts there, taking 653 and 579 votes to Ms. Sinnott's 571 and Mr. Lambert's 518.

Despite coming in fourth place overall, Mr. Lambert found many fans in Sharon Heights and Belle Haven. He was the top vote-getter in both neighborhoods.
INFORMATION

For citywide precinct information, go to the San Mateo County Elections Office Web site at shapethefuture.org, and click on "Statement of the Vote."

E-mail a friend a link to this story.