Oceanside City Councilmember Ryan Keim held a shrinking advantage over incumbent Mayor Esther Sanchez in the latest results released Monday from the Nov. 5 election.
The new numbers cut his previous lead of 591 votes to a slim 239-vote margin. About 140,000 ballots countywide remain to be counted, with the next update expected by 6 p.m. Wednesday, according to the San Diego County Registrar of Voters.
Keim is a former Oceanside police officer appointed to a vacancy on the council in January 2019 and then elected to a four-year term in 2020. The mayor’s only opponent, he’s been ahead by a slim margin since the first results were announced.
Sanchez, an attorney and former public defender, has been on the council since 2000 and was first elected mayor in 2020.
Oceanside’s city treasurer election also is close.
Incumbent City Treasurer Victor Roy led his two opponents in the early results, but he slipped into second place by the end of last week.
Phyllis Dominguez, a small business owner and 22-year Oceanside resident, was ahead by almost 800 votes with Monday’s results. Jack Fernandes remained in third place.
courtesy photo
Phyllis Dominguez
Roy and Fernandes both have trouble spots in their record.
An independent investigation done for the city in 2022 showed Roy had behaved poorly in the job, violated city policies, and had used library computers for viewing inappropriate material. Fernandes publicly acknowledged a DUI arrest before the election, and a police report showed he was involved in an apparently unrelated “road rage” incident in La Jolla
Dominguez promised to restore trust in the office, in response to questions from The San Diego Union-Tribune before the election.
“Due to a history of controversy in this office,” Dominguez said, “the incoming city treasurer will need to restore the credibility of the office and rebuild the necessary relationships with the other departments to become an effective watchdog of the taxpayer’s money and trusted financial advisor to the City Council.”
Two Oceanside City Council races have not changed with additional results.
Jimmy Figueroa, a local nonprofit leader, is ahead of the nearest other candidate, Laura Bassett, for the District 3 seat now held by Keim. Other candidates in that district are Tom DeMooy and Austin Sorensen.
In District 4, incumbent Peter Weiss leads by more than 20 percentage points over his two opponents, Omar Hashimi and Amber Kae Niuatoa.
Almost 70 percent of Oceanside voters supported approval of an additional 10 years for Measure X, the temporary half-cent sales tax increase approved in 2018 and otherwise set to expire in 2026.
