Emeryville City Councilmember John Bauters was ahead with about 54% of the vote in early returns Tuesday night for the Alameda County Board of Supervisors District 5 seat, according to the county Registrar of Voters.
If the results hold, Bauters will be the first new District 5 supervisor in 32 years, as incumbent Keith Carson is retiring.
Nikki Fortunato Bas was in second place with a little more than 46% of the as of about 10:45 p.m. Tuesday, according to returns posted on the Registrar of Voters’ website.
The district includes Albany, Berkeley, Emeryville, Piedmont, North Oakland and parts of West Oakland and the Oakland hills.
Bauters’ campaign was supported by the International Association of Firefighters Local 55 and a committee called Families for a Vibrant Oakland, which gets significant funding from the Northern California Carpenters Union and the Oakland Police Officers Association, among others.
His supporters also include several state and local elected officials, including the departing supervisor Carson, as well as supervisors Elisa Márquez and Lena Tam, along with Alameda County Sheriff Yesenia Sanchez, U.S. Rep. Eric Swalwell and state assembly members Mia Bonta and Buffy Wicks.
He also listed 11 of the county’s 14 mayors among his supporters, as well as a majority of the district’s city council members, the Sierra Club and Planned Parenthood.
Bas, an Oakland City Council member, and Bauters, an Emeryville City Council member, were the top two vote-getters in a crowded field of nine candidates in the March primary election, with Bas picking up just over 34% of the vote and Bauters clocking in with 20.7%.
Bas had significant support from several union groups, including the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 595, the Peralta Federation of Teachers Local 1603, and SEIU 1021.
She also lists several state and local political leaders as supporters, including Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao, Berkeley Mayor Jesse ArreguÃn, state senators Nancy Skinner and Aisha Wahab, U.S. Rep. Ro Khanna and California Attorney General Rob Bonta, among others.
