By Miriam Raftery
November 8, 2012 (Lemon Grove) – The election of Racquel Vasquez and reelection of George Gastil restores a Democratic majority to the Lemon Grove City Council. Vasquez won 29.30% of the votes cast, followed by Gastil with 23.01%.
“Racquel is a breath of fresh air,” said Gastil, who called the election of Vasquez, an African-American woman, “historic. She is the first person who is not white to be elected to the Council—and she comes in first place, which is a testament to her involvement in the community.”
Asked how great a difference the shift in majority will make in Lemon Grove, a city that lost its recreation department due to budget cuts, a move Gastil opposed, he replied, “Time will tell.”
“IT was a lot of work. We put an aggressive effort into reaching out to voters,” said Vasquez, who began her campaign a year and a half ago.
Vasqez told ECM that after talking with people in Lemon Grove, she has focused on “three things I plan to champion”: quality neighborhoods, public safety and economic development.
Final results:
RACQUEL VASQUEZ |
2738 |
29.30% |
GEORGE GASTIL |
2150 |
23.01% |
MATT MENDOZA |
1485 |
15.89% |
LOU MELENDEZ |
1173 |
12.55% |
MICHAEL RICHARDS |
985 |
10.54% |
MARK GRACYK |
813 |
8.70% |
Comments
Get It Right
Above is exactly the problem with politics. Local politics is, and should be, non-partisan. In recent memory the Lemon Grove Council has operated in an incredibly non-partisan manor. Your example of a partisan vote on the recreation department is patently untrue. If you have to put a party spin on it get it right. The vote was 2 Republicans and 1 Democrat to close the department with 1 Republican and 1 Democrat to keep it. There was nothing partisan about that vote and was not easy for anyone on either side of it. It should be noted that with complete council support, city staff has retained some of the important programs and added others.
To Raquel a much deserved congratulations. Hard work and persistence paid off. I look forward to working with her and I'm sure that her drive to do what is right for our small city is stronger than the outside influence of party politics.
JJones
PS The two votes in favor of the REC were former School Board members.
Thanks for the clarification on the Rec Dept. issue.
I've corrected the story to remove the reference to the Republican majority, since the vote on that issue was not split down party lines.
Speciailly, Councilmembers Gastil and Jones voted against eliminating the Rec Dept., while Mayor Sessom and Councilmembers Cook and England voted for eliminating it: http://www.eastcountymagazine.org/node/6090.