We Beat Him
Joe Biden defeated Donald Trump and became the president-elect. But things look tougher in our local races, where progressive challengers are falling behind.
☀️Good morning, Fresno! It’s Sunday, Nov. 8, 2020.
And what a good morning it is! Because as you know, Joseph Robinette Biden is going to be our next president.
You are fired, Trump! Loser! Sad! HAHAHAHAHAH!
Friend of the Pod Yasmin Mendoza tells it a bit more eloquently. She told the Fresno Bee as she celebrated in Tower District: “I’m out here because all the people of color showed up, all the Latinos showed up and the Black community showed up, and here we are. We have defeated Donald Trump and we will move towards a new era in our democracy.”
What more is there to say? Donald Trump is defeated. And we can breathe a sigh of relief and celebrate this momentous occasion.
For now… BRUNCH IS BACK ON THE MENU, BABBBBYYYYYYY! (Also title of our next pod, with Isaac Gudino. See below)
It’s a good Sunday. It was a great Saturday. But looking at our local races, NGL, I’m a little disappointed. Progressive challengers are running behind, sometimes by very close margins. Thousands of ballots still need to be counted, and we remain hopeful.
But the thing about Monday is that it’s coming. The work continues.
—Ram & Tommy 🧡💙
Fresno By Five
🗳️The State of the (Local) Races
We’ve got lots of sexy, local races to cover but NGL there’s some potential disappointment here. But we’ll get through it together.
Republican Devin Nunes has been reelected for the 22nd Congressional District over Phil Arballo. Sad!
State Assemblymember Joaquin Arambula is on track to be reelected to the 31st District with 62%.
In District 16, Rep. Jim Costa, D-Fresno, is trouncing challenger Kevin Cookingham, with 60% of the vote.
Rep. Tom McClintock, R-Elk Grove, has defeated Democratic challenger Brynne Kennedy with 75.75% of the votes going to Rep. McClintock.
Assemblymember Devon Mathis is fending off Democratic challenger Drew Phelps with 54% of the vote.
David Valadao, the Republican, added well over 2000 votes to his 5,293 vote lead against incumbent TJ Cox, for the Valley’s 21st Congressional District seat.
Valadao has long standing beef with the incumbent, having lost his seat to TJ Cox in 2018.
A new vote update in Kern County, where Cox draws his strongest support, is expected Monday. Thousands of ballots remain to be counted (about 177,896 in Kern county alone according to the California Secretary of State).
As of Friday, with more than half of the ballots counted, these are the school board results:
State Center Community College District—
Area 2 Trustee Eric Payne is so far losing his seat to Nasreen Johnson, who holds nearly 38% of the vote. Payne has held the seat since 2012. He’s in third place, trailing with 30% of the vote. Maybe he shouldn’t have voted to privatize the student bookstore?
Johnson is a communications professional endorsed by the State Center Federation of Teachers, and a silly little newsletter called Five by Five Nine.
Area 3 Trustee John Leal is failing to defend his board president seat as he trails behind newcomer Danielle Parra, a bookkeeper, 38.8% to 37.6%.
Dary Rezvani, another challenger, business owner and Friend of the Pod, has about 23% of the vote.
Area 6 Trustee Deborah Jean Ikeda and Area 7 Trustee Richard Caglia are fending off their challengers with comfortable leads.
Fresno Unified School District
Area 5 Trustee Carol Mills is in the lead with 44% of the vote. David Paredes, a community youth organizer, and one of the only candidates who can do a handstand is in second place with 36% of the vote.
Area 6 Trustee Claudia Cazares leads her challengers with a sizable margin of 51%.
Clovis Unified School District
David Defrank leads Jacob Trumble for the Area 2 seat with 78% of the votes.
Area 4 Trustee Hugh Awtrey, who was appointed to the board last year to fill a retired member’s position, is leading his challengers with 38% of the vote. Noha Elbaz, an educator, and Jonathon Holt, a financial planner trail at 35% and 26% respectively.
Area 5 Trustee Christopher Casado is losing to Yolanda Moore, a physician assistant, who has 51% of the vote. 75% of ballots have been counted in this close race.
Central Unified School District
The incumbent, Area 3 Trustee Phillip Cervantes, has about 50.9% of the vote, but his challenger Corbin Gunstream is close behind with both 49.03% of the vote and, also, the coolest name ever. Gunstream?! What the heck— How is he losing with that kind of name??
Jeremy Alam Mehling, a farmer, is leading the race for the Area 6 seat with 33% of the vote. Sandra R. Flores, a community outreach manager, is trailing behind Mehling at 27%. Businessman Richard Martinez is in third at 22%, and community organizer and Friend of the Pod Stacy Williams is at 17%.
Disgraced former Area 4 Trustee Richard Atkins was forced to resign from the board in June following his trashy, racist comments on social media, and his empty seat is contested by Shawn M. Brooks, account clerk, and Bret Rush, county supervisor assistant. Brooks is in the lead with 61% of the vote.
Sanger Unified School District
Area 1 Trustee Tammy Wolfe is fighting off businessman Juan-Antonio “Sebastian” Ardemagni with 74% of the vote.
Trustee Rick Duran is sparring Va Pao Her, karate instructor, for the Area 4 seat. Her is in the lead with about 51% of the vote.
👮Dyer Assembles
Before Jerry Dyer becomes mayor, anybody wanna admit they have a crush on me? Before he takes office on Jan. 5, here’s the staffing details of his incoming administration.
“I have assembled an All-Star team that will assist me in implementing my ‘One Fresno’ vision,” Dyer said.
Tommy Esqueda, former public utilities director, will become Dyer’s city manager. He’s returning to City Hall after two years at Fresno State as the Associate Vice President for Water and Sustainability.
Gregory Barfield, Francine Kanne, and Georgeanne White will serve as assistant city managers. All three have experience working for the city.
Tim Orman will remain as chief of staff. He’s served Brand for the past four years.
Sontaya Rose, a television reporter with ABC 30, will be the communications director for Dyer. Mark Standriff, current city spokesperson will be the director of the new Beautify Fresno.
😱The Girls are Glocked Up
A combination of the typical election year gun surge, plus THIS ELECTION YEAR GUN SURGE, plus the pandemic, plus hand wringing over the phrase “defund the police” has guns flying off the shelves.
The FBI said background checks in California increased by 9% between September and October.
🦠 Coronavirus Update
As of Oct. 30, the most recent data available at the time of writing, there have been a total of 31,409 (+869) total confirmed cases and 443 (+11) deaths in Fresno County. Currently, there are 103 (+9) hospitalized. A total of 21,142 people have recovered.
We remain in the Red tier which allows restaurants and movie theaters to continue indoor operations at 25% capacity.
We had a positivity rate of 6.7 per 100,000 residents this past week, which is in the Red tier. To remain in this tier, Fresno County has to meet the following state requirements.
An adjusted average daily rate of seven new coronavirus cases for every 100,000 residents
Have no more than 8% of residents who are tested for COVID-19 show positive results for the infection on a weekly basis
Testing is available around Fresno. Visit lhi.care to set up an appointment. It’s free even without insurance. If you have insurance, you can also try these other testing sites here.
Speaking of coronavirus and those who need testing...
🦠Steve Brandau Tests Positive for the Coronavirus
The Fresno County Supervisor was shocked when he tested positive for the coronavirus. He is self quarantining for 10 days while county health officials contact trace.
The offices of the Fresno County Board of Supervisors, Clerk of the Board and Administrative Office are temporarily closed.
Following the development of symptoms across Tuesday and Wednesday following an election watch party, Steve Brandau only got tested on Thursday at the request of co-workers. Sick!
It took the mask order from Newsom for Brandau to don a mask, but he has regularly encouraged mask wearing, handwashing, and social distancing, what he calls “low-hanging fruit.” Still, he maintains that the virus is going to do whatever it wants to do, whatever that even means.
“I don’t know much about COVID, but I haven’t seen many people that do,” he said, discussing both Dr. Fauci and Trump. Well hey, at least Steve has something in common with the former president.
👩🚒Creek Fire Update
As of Nov. 6, the Creek Fire is now 70% contained.
It currently has burned 379,716 acres and is now considered to be the largest single source wildfire in California history.
Long-awaited rains brought some relief for firefighter crews battling the Creek Fire.
Light rain and snow fell over the fire Friday night, and less intense winds meant less chaos. The forest service said that there was relatively little fire spread.
Between 4 and 8 inches of snow are predicted for higher elevations this weekend, with ¼ inch to ¾ inch predicted for lower elevations.
These factors will, hopefully, choke the life out of this fire. Until now, its northeast spread has been fueled by embers casting off and igniting. .
Wet ass weather will leave nothing dry enough to ignite, and with gentle winds and precipitation clearing up the air, it looks like fire season might be coming to an end.
But nothing can ever be good because with winter storms—no we’re not making a “winter is coming” reference, that show sucks—comes the possibility of fucking mudslides. Ugh.
🚓uSpark Publishes The Fresno People’s Commission on Policing Report
Progressive media outlet uSpark’s “The People’s Commission,”—a group of individuals and organizations who “collectively plan for a Fresno that is safe, resourced, and equitable”—published their policing report, which you can download here.
Several of their demands include developing and funding youth centers, including the formerly incarcerated or gang-affiliated in violence reduction programs, funding trauma recovery centers, expanding FAX service and making it free, investment in wellness and healing programs, further investment in mental health services and investment in parks, among other things.
🎧 On the pod this week
Brunch is Back on the Menu, Boys! Feat. Isaac Gudino
The brunch buddies get the deets on Wisconsin with Isaac Gudino, a Fresnan who was called to work for the Wisconsin Democratic Party in its efforts to elect former Vice President Joe Biden and Sen. Kamala Harris. Plus, the guys talk complacency in the Biden era, divisions on the left and what it means to finally beat Trump.
Listen to the episode on these other podcasting platforms:
Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Anchor | Google Podcasts
Also pls give us 5 Stars on Apple Podcasts
And now… a collection of tweets & Instagram posts celebrating Trump’s (LOSER) fall
Alright, that’s all folks!! See ya at brunch!
This newsletter was written by Ram Reyes (@vibesradiator) and Tommy Tribble (@tomiiwrites) | Follow Five By Five Nine on Instagram & Twitter