SANTA CRUZ — An effort to unseat two Santa Cruz City Council members had gained the lead in election-night ballot counts.

By mid-morning Wednesday, with all 34 precincts reporting, nearly 57% or 7,250 votes were in favor of recalling Councilman Drew Glover and 54% or 6,910 votes were in favor of recalling Councilman Chris Krohn.

At an election-night gathering at the SEIU Local 521 union hall on Mission Street, a bustling room full of people came to a standstill for a televised speech from presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders shortly after hearing comments from Krohn on the first round of election-night results. Glover had not been seen at the party through 10 p.m.

Early in the evening, Krohn said he has historically seen progressive candidates do better in late-reported results than on early vote-by-mail ballots.

“Things are changing so fast, I didn’t look at anything,” Krohn said. “Win or lose, I feel really good being in this room with all of these people who are amazing, who put in endless hours, who are what, volunteers — the majority of them.”

County Clerk/Elections official Gail Pellerin reported Wednesday that tens of thousands of ballots countywide remained uncounted, though it was unclear how many were from City of Santa Cruz voters. To shift results, Glover will need to see overall opposition to his recall increase by nearly 6.5%, bringing the total to more than 50%, in order to avoid leaving office, while Krohn would need a more than 4% spike in recall opposition.

The recall is the first to make its way all the way to a ballot in the city’s history, targeting politically progressive and outspoken council members Krohn, whose four-year term naturally expires in November regardless of the recall’s outcome, and political neophyte Glover, voted into office in November.

Of the four contenders offering to step into Krohn’s and Glover’s seats, should they be vacated, results showed Santa Cruz City Schools teacher Renée Golder gaining nearly 61% of the vote — 7,085 ballots — in an early lead over former Mayor Tim Fitzmaurice for Glover’s nearly three remaining years, and former city Mayor Katherine Beiers narrowly pushing ahead with nearly 54% — 6,190 — of early support over former Mayor Don Lane for Krohn’s remaining nine months.

Golder, reached Wednesday afternoon, said she was proud of the campaign she and supporters had run, including “tons of volunteers walking door to door to share our vision for Santa Cruz.”

“I’m optimistic the results will be in my favor and I’m looking forward to awaiting the returns with my family and friends,” Golder said.

Lane said Tuesday night that the race was still very close and he expected later rounds of ballot counts to reveal the direction the election would head.

“I’m not surprised it’s close and I won’t be surprised either way, if she wins or if I win,” Lane said. “I think it just represents that we’re two well-known members of the community –people had a good couple of options.”

Fitzmaurice and Beiers, both endorsed as preferred politically progressive replacements by Glover and Krohn, also were in attendance at the SEIU party.

Beiers said early in the evening that the election period felt very compressed compared to a standard run for city council. She said a victory for her that night would be to find out that she was not needed to serve because the recall against Krohn was unsuccessful.

“Tonight, for me, I thought, well, the biggest thing is over,” Beiers said outside the party. “It was so squeezed. It was just so pushing and exhausting and you couldn’t really do a lot of the things that I would have done — you can’t knock at every door.”

Fitzmaurice, seeing himself lagging behind Golder after mail-in-ballot results, joked that “all results are better if you’re ahead.”

“It’s not surprising that mail-in ballots that come in early would go against progressives,” Fitzmaurice said. “Honestly, I just have to wait to see what filters out, what comes. I’m not too worried — we did our best and I had great support and I really appreciate it.”

No comment was available from pro-recall backers aligned with Santa Cruz United after a Sentinel reporter was barred from attending the group’s election-night “private party.”

The two sitting councilmen have come under fire for a litany of complaints stoked by recall organizers Santa Cruz United and backed by rent control opponents Santa Cruz Together, two political action groups sharing significant crossover. Though the reasons suggested for recalling Krohn and Glover — often interchangeably — have shifted since ballot petitions began circulating in May, many have focused on the two men’s reluctance to shutter the former large homeless encampment behind Gateway Shopping Plaza without alternatives and city investigations into alleged respectful workplace conduct violations. Related Articles California ballot measure to lift ban on affirmative action widely opposed by surveyed voters

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In interviews since the recall campaign has organized, Glover has maintained that the recalls are designed to redirect the council members’ voting efforts on issues related to equity, such as affordable housing and homelessness. Krohn has said that use of a recall for political scapegoating was inappropriate and that it should be reserved for grave offenses.

Efforts to recall the two councilmen were a poorly kept secret early in 2019, with six out of seven council members in January of last year agreeing to back away from temporarily extending city rules mandating that landlords must have a “just cause” for evicting their tenants. The move came less than two months after certified election results confirmed that voters had not backed November 2018’s citizen-driven Measure M rent control and just-cause eviction initiative.

The recall also was predicted by city-hired consultant Dave Ceppos, who was tapped in February 2019 to handicap the city’s chances of launching a collaborative task force to recommend rental housing solutions for the city. Ceppos, during a presentation to the council in June, predicted the city was “about to go on war footing for the next two years.”