Three candidates have emerged as the winners in the race for East Palo Alto City Council where nine contenders vied to secure one of the three spots up for grabs.
Incumbent Carlos Romero, startup founder Webster Lincoln and Mark Dinan, chair of the city’s Public Works and Transportation Commission, have consistently led the rest of the pack in the counting of votes since Election Night nearly four weeks ago. By mid-November, it was clear that they would likely each win a seat, according to the San Mateo County Registration and Elections Division.
“It was pretty much baked in the cake from the beginning,” Dinan said in an interview.
As of the latest count updated on Nov. 26, Romero is at the top with 17.6% and has about 200 more votes than Dinan, who is in second place at 2,341 votes or 16.2%. Lincoln is trailing behind at 15.5% with about 90 fewer votes than Dinan.
Dinan is a small business owner who has been living with his family in East Palo Alto for over a decade. He is most known for running the East Palo Alto Neighbors Facebook group, which boasts 14,000 followers.
He previously ran for City Council in 2022 but came up short. In reflecting on his campaign strategy, Dinan thinks that running to improve quality of life issues helped him win.
“I think more more than anything, I ran an issues-based campaign,” Dinan said. “The issues I ran on were parking, quality of life, parks, mobility, housing, just a bunch of very important issues for the people of East Palo Alto. Even if I am the most imperfect vessel for this message, I think it still resonated with people.”
Third time’s a charm
Lincoln has run unsuccessfully for City Council twice before. In 2020, he finished in fourth place, 69 votes behind current East Palo Alto Mayor Antonio Lopez. In 2022, he lost by just 19 votes.
But this time, he thinks that engaging more with residents helped give him a boost in the polls.
“While I spent less on the campaign this time, I made a point to connect directly with residents, listen to their concerns and ensure that their voices were at the heart of my platform,” Lincoln said in an interview.
The closest candidate behind Lincoln is Deborah Lewis-Virges, who has remained in fourth place since Election Day without getting close to inching near the top three spots. As of Tuesday, she has 12.6% of the total vote, or about 430 less votes than Lincoln.
Romero did not respond to a request for comment by the time of publication.
“The issues I ran on were parking, quality of life, parks, mobility, housing, just a bunch of very important issues for the people of East Palo Alto. Even if I am the most imperfect vessel for this message, I think it still resonated with people.” Mark Dinan, East Palo Alto councilman-elect
Tuesday’s update concluded counting all qualifying ballots across San Mateo County. The only remaining ones are challenged ballots, which do not qualify for counting. There are about 1,300 of them.
Challenged ballots are those that require additional verification, such as those without a signature or have a signature that does not match the one on the voter’s file. Voters with challenged ballots are given the opportunity to correct their ballot by Dec. 3 if they want it to be included in the count, according to the San Mateo County Registration and Elections Division.
The final results will be certified this Thursday, Dec. 5.
Ready to get down to business
In the meantime, Lincoln and Dinan are eager to roll up their sleeves since they are expected to be inaugurated in mid-December, they said.
Lincoln’s early priorities are “addressing critical infrastructure issues, economic development and working to expand affordable housing opportunities,” he said.
Dinan is planning to focus on fixing the city’s lack of parking, an issue that was at top of mind for several candidates in this race.
“The immediate thing to work on is parking and code enforcement. Many people feel like one of the reasons why parking is so bad is that there’s a lot of abandoned vehicles and broken-down vehicles in the street, so we have to use code enforcement to clean that up,” Dinan said. “There are no solutions for parking. There’s just problems. I think it’s addressing parking but it’s also looking for solutions.”
Regardless of potential policy differences between councilmembers, they understand that it takes working together in order to get things done.
“One council member alone can’t do anything,” Dinan said. “But if you get to three, you can do anything. I anticipate working closely with my fellow council members to improve the city of East Palo Alto and to move us forward on all sorts of issues, whether it’s housing, clean water, infrastructure, parks, or parking.”
“I’m committed to collaborating with the council, city staff and residents to ensure we make meaningful progress in our community,” Lincoln said.