Two Concord city councilmembers seeking to retain their seats were leading in the early results from Tuesday’s election, while the four-person race for the other council seat on the ballot remained too close to call.
Concord moved to district-based elections starting in 2018, and voters in Districts 1, 3 and 5 had council races to consider. Longtime City Councilmember Laura Hoffmeister was ahead of two challengers for her District 1 seat, while Mayor Laura Nakamura was leading her lone challenger.
Vice Mayor Dominic Aliano was not running for reelection for the District 3 seat, and Robyn Kuslits was narrowly ahead of Dena Acosta Beere, Don Seta and Douglas Lezameta in the race to be the district’s new council member, according to the early results released from Contra Costa County elections officials Tuesday night.
District 1
Hoffmeister was first elected to the council in 1997, and this would be her seventh time being reelected. District 1 covers the northeast part of the city, including a large segment of the former Concord Naval Weapons Station site slated for redevelopment.
Maria Bagley and Patricia Brazil were challenging Hoffmeister for the seat, and both mentioned the long-delayed weapons station redevelopment in their candidate statements for why the city needs a change in leadership.
Hoffmeister had 53% of the vote in the early returns, compared to 31% for Bagley and 16% for Brazil.
District 3
With Aliano not running for reelection, Kuslits was leading by just 12 votes in the initial results released in the four-candidate race for District 3, which is in the southwestern part of the city and includes the Monument Boulevard corridor and some of its popular shopping centers.
Kuslits had 562 votes compared to 550 for Acosta Beere, 500 for Seta and 363 for Lezameta.
Kuslits described herself as a “veteran, non-profit leader, law school graduate, and substitute teacher,” while Acosta Beere in her candidate statement described herself as “a mother of two young children, lifelong volunteer, and active community member.”
District 5
Nakamura was first elected to the City Council in 2022 and was appointed mayor this year as part of the council’s annual reorganization and rotation for mayoral and vice mayoral duties.
She represents District 5 on the eastern end of the city and was facing Aeysha Corio, a member of the city’s Planning Commission and small business owner who was endorsed by Hoffmeister, Aliano and other public officials.
According to the early returns from Tuesday’s election, Nakamura had nearly 62% of the vote compared to 38% for Corio.
The initial results included counted vote-by-mail ballots and in-person ballots from early voting sites. The final election night report was expected by midnight, but county elections officials said the election night report often only represents about half of the total votes cast. The next report will be posted by 5 p.m. Friday.
