Community college district: Menlo Park's John Pimentel holds lead

In the San Mateo County Community College District race for Trustee Area 5, which includes Menlo Park northeast of El Camino Real, Redwood City and East Palo Alto, John Pimentel was in the lead, according to county election results.

Pimentel, a Menlo Park resident, Lisa Hicks-Dumanske of Redwood City and Blair Whitney of North Fair Oaks are all competing for the open seat.

The community college district oversees Skyline and Canada community colleges and the College of San Mateo. The district is in the process of switching to a by-district election system from an at-large one, meaning candidates must live in one of the trustee areas up for election to be eligible.

As of the morning of Nov. 4, the San Mateo County Elections Office reported Pimentel had 17,447 votes (49.9%), Hicks-Dumanske had 15,034 votes (43%), and Whitney had 2,473 votes (7.1%). The preliminary tally included all vote center ballots and vote-by-mail ballots returned at vote centers, drop boxes or via mail by Wednesday, Oct. 28.

Pimentel, a renewable energy entrepreneur, put a significant sum of money into his campaign, especially for a local county-level race, spending 11.6 times as much as his next competitor, according to campaign finance documents. He personally loaned his campaign $150,000, raised $13,158 and spent more than $200,527 on mailers, ads, a billboard and other campaign expenses. In a statement, he told The Almanac that he made the personal loan to maintain political independence. “I chose to lend part of my personal savings to my campaign so that I could focus effort on understanding the issues and investing the time to listen to the community’s needs,” he said.

By contrast, Hicks-Dumanske, executive director of the Redwood City Library Foundation, reported raising $20,958 and spending $17,292 as of the latest campaign finance report and Whitney, a veteran, member of the North Fair Oaks Community Council and site supervisor who provides security at a tech campus, did not report any campaign fundraising.

Pimentel’s campaign focused on a goal of making tuition free for those who need it in the community college district, among other ideas.

Hicks-Dumanske identified a number of goals she hoped to address if elected: to ensure that budget decisions prioritize student needs; to expand program options; to speed up program completions and help students transition to next steps after community college; to provide vulnerable students with support for food, housing, transportation and digital access needs; and to help them afford higher education.

Whitney had identified the top issues facing the district as COVID-19, management and governance failures, and the economy.

Area 1

In the Area 1 race, candidate Lisa Petrides ran unopposed after candidate Eugene Whitlock dropped out of the race in September. Area 1 includes the San Mateo County coastside, Woodside, Portola Valley, Atherton, unincorporated West Menlo Park and the city of Menlo Park up to El Camino Real.

In an election night email to The Almanac, Petrides said she was excited for this historic election and “what looks to be an unprecedented California turnout.”

“Feeling good as I join you all in awaiting continued returns,” she said.

The next election results update was scheduled for Thursday afternoon, after The Almanac’s Wednesday press deadline.

Email Kate Bradshaw at kbradshaw@almanacnews.com