By Robert Haugh

The election results are almost final. Only about 48,000 votes need to be counted throughout the County.  In the close City Council races, it doesn’t appear there are enough outstanding votes in Santa Clara to make a difference.

Here are the likely final results:

• Two of the 49er Five will win re-election. The team spent approximately $1.2 million in independent expenditures to keep Councilmembers Suds Jain (District Five) and Kevin Park (District Four) in the Council.

• Another member of 49er Five, Vice Mayor Anthony Becker finished third in District Six.  He was only 122 votes behind his ally and confidant George Guerra.  The team spent over $600,000 in an independent expenditure to help Guerra who got trounced by Kelly Cox. 

• The newest member of the 49er Five is Albert Gonzalez who was a “ghost candidate.”  Gonzalez moved into District One, didn’t even set up his own website, and he did little campaigning.  But the team spent approximately $600,000 in an independent expenditure to help Gonzalez win.

• Overall, the 49ers spent about $2.4 million on four council seats. They will outspend other independent expenditure campaigns by the Santa Clara Police Officers Association, Santa Clara Firefighters, and the Related Companies by a huge ratio of 10-1 or 12-1 once the final numbers are in.

• In other results, Cory Morgan will be the Police Chief, winning by a 2-1 margin.  

• Bob O’Keefe will be the new City Clerk, prevailing over three other candidates.

• And Measure I, the $400 million bond measure authored by Lisa Gillmor and Kathy Watanabe will win with 69 percent of the vote.  It needed over 66 percent to prevail. It’s a historic win since it’ll be the first successful bond campaign for Santa Clara in six decades. 

Santa Clara News Online will evaluate the campaigns in the coming days when the election results are final.