Two planning commissioners, Joelle Gallagher and Anne Cottrell, appear to lead the races for Napa County’s District 1 and 3 seats on the Board of Supervisors, according to initial results from Tuesday’s election.
Gallagher was facing Suzanne Besu Truchard in a runoff for the District 1 supervisor seat. As of the night’s final results report, Gallagher had 2,087 votes, while her challenger Truchard, a businesswoman and attorney, had 1,570 votes. They are vying for the seat held by Supervisor Brad Wagenknecht, who didn’t seek re-election.
Gallagher is the executive director of First 5 Napa County, a commission supporting children and families, and has also been a Napa County planning commissioner since 2017. Her supporters include Wagenknecht, Napa Mayor Scott Sedgley and state Assemblymember Cecilia Aguiar-Curry.
Cottrell, also a planning commissioner, is leading the runoff in District 3 with about 65 percent of the vote. The other candidate, John Dunbar, the mayor of Yountville in Napa County, lags behind with about 35 percent of the vote.
If elected, Cottrell plans to tackle pressing environmental issues in the county, including fire prevention, clean water support, as well as developing affordable housing solutions, according to her platform.
Napa County has 83,471 registered voters, of which 21,943 or 26.29 percent have voted in the elections so far. Most voters have mailed in their ballots, while just 1.86 percent voted in person on Election Day.
Napa County will release another report on Monday afternoon. Further counts are scheduled for Nov. 15, Nov. 16, and Nov. 17, or until 95 percent of ballots received have been counted. The final certified count will be released in early December.