Jackson wins 5-candidate Hermosa City Council race [Updated]
Hermosa Beach City Council candidate Raymond Jackson with wife Rachel and their sons. Photo courtesy of the Raymond Jackson campaign
by Dan Blackburn
Raymond Jackson, a retired Army colonel, turned a lifetime of unique professional responsibilities Tuesday night into an easy win for an open seat on the Hermosa Beach City Council.
While a limited number of ballots remain to be counted, Jackson outpaced four other candidates to replace Hany Fangary, who resigned in December following a move to Manhattan Beach.
With his win, Jackson becomes the first African-American to earn an elected position in the beach city. He will hold the seat until Nov. 2022. The candidate with the most votes wins; no majority is required.
Source. LAVote.net
The 3,474 votes counted by Wednesday morning represented a 23 percent turn-out from among Hermosa’s 15,108 registered voters. Just three of the votes counted by Wednesday morning were dropped off at ballot centers. The balance were mailed in. There were no polling places.
“I’d sure rather be where we are right now,” Jackson told Easy Reader minutes after the polls closed at 8 p.m., “than where the others are.”
He was resting on a 10.5 percentage point lead over his closest competitor, Randy Balik. Jackson had collected 1,250 votes (36.14 percent) to Balik’s 887 tally (26.64 percent).
Dean Francois ran third, with 656 votes (16.97 percent); Daniel Rittenhouse collected 466 votes ((13.47 percent) and Tara McNamara Stabile scored 200 votes (5.78 percent).
Jackson made his initial try at politics with what he called “a great group of supporters,” adding, “It might be a little early, but I’d sure like to thank everyone who helped me in this.”
Jackson is the father of two sons, Vann and Jax. His wife Rachel is a law professor at Southwestern Law.
Assuming the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors ratifies Jackson’s victory at the board’s June 1 meeting, Jackson could be sworn in at the June 8 Hermosa Beach City Council meeting.
Jackson’s seat, along with those of council members Mary Campbell and Stacey Armato. will be on the November 2022 ballot, along with the California gubernatorial, and House of Representative mid-term races. ER
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