4 years later, Arnold wins seat

Atascadero News photo courtesy of Dan Snyder • Debbie Arnold is congratulated by Atascadero supporter Edie Knight at the Taft Barn Tuesday night.

ATASCADERO — Challenger Debbie Arnold won the Fifth District Supervisor race over incumbent Jim Patterson on Tuesday.

With 39 percent of the registered voters (11,002) in the district voting, Arnold received 55.66 percent of the votes and Patterson received 44.16 percent. While the numbers are final, the election has not yet been certified.

“It was exciting,” Arnold said about winning the election. “I think that our campaign team was very focused. We worked really hard to the message out.”

In 2008, Arnold and Patterson faced off for the first time. Patterson took that race by 349 votes. Patterson received 51.42 percent of the vote and Arnold 48.39 percent with 11,539 people casting votes.

Patterson conceded the election around 11 p.m. Tuesday. Arnold celebrated her victory with her family and supporters at the Taft Barn between Atascadero and Santa Margarita.

“I really, really look forward to working with all the supervisors,” Arnold said, and added that as supervisor she wants “to be true to the platform I ran on.”

Other election results:

In other supervisor races, Frank Mecham ran unopposed in the First District and Adam Hill won the Third District race over Ed Waage. Hill received 58.62 percent of the votes and Waage got 40.94 percent.

Prop 28 on term limits got 61.44 percent in favor of it. Prop 29, the cigarette tax, was defeated with a 51.32 percent “no” vote. Lois Capps and Abel Maldonado will face off for the 24th District Representative seat in November. Katcho Achadjian and Gerald Manata will face off for 35th District State Assembly.

For complete results from the county, go to www.slocounty.ca.gov/clerk. For state results, go to vote.sos.ca.gov.