Downey leads in council race

Rick Downey is the apparent winner of the Angels Camp City Council race, with preliminary tallies showing him leading with 504 votes.

Betty Raggio is in second with 435 votes, with George Fry in the rear with 117, according to Calaveras County Clerk-Recorder Karen Varni. The winner will serve out the remaining year of the late councilman Paul Raggio’s term.
 

“I’m excited. And a little surprised,” said Rick Downey at his election-night bash at the Angels Camp World Mercantile.    

“It’s a testament to Paul Raggio that Betty could get 400 votes without ever campaigning,” he said. “And I respect that. It’s a tribute to the Raggio family.”

Raggio’s reaction when told of the preliminary results was immediate: “Oh, I hope Downey wins. Good show.”

“He’s a young man, and he has the city at heart, so I think he’s going to do a wonderful job,” said Raggio, whose husband held the seat on and off since 1992.

George Fry said he had three words: “Congratulations Rick Downey.” He plans to run again next year.

Election results will likely be finalized by the end of the week, once the department has verified the election’s paper trail, said Varni.

It appears turnout was down sharply from regular City Council elections, according to numbers provided by Christine Fouts, county election coordinator.

For the November 2008 election, nearly 4,000 people voted, with all candidates in the four-member field getting at least 900 votes. In 2004, more than 3,000 people voted and three of four candidates received more than 900 votes.

As during his campaign, Downey, the former owner of SEI Solid Waste, said his first priority as councilman will be bringing business to the downtown.

His support for moving forward with the Raspberry parking lot steps may give him his first position as tie-breaker: the council dead-locked 2-2 on a recent vote on the issue.

As for the controversial fourth filter project on the city’s sewer treatment plant, over which the council has long been split, Downey said he has not made up his mind.

While he supports infrastructure improvements in the city, he does not currently see a need for the fourth filter. But he is willing to listen to arguments.

It’s an attitude Downey says will guide him as a council member.

“I want to be a person that ... people see represents all of Angels Camp, that is open-minded, that looks at both sides of an issue,” he said.