Incumbent Katie Melendez and newcomer Jeff Fox have won seats on the Vista City Council with significant enough leads that remaining ballots to be tallied by the county Registrar of Voters are highly unlikely to change the outcome, which held through early leads for both candidates on election night.
According to the registrar’s latest update Thursday, Melendez led her challenger, Denisse Barragan, 4,294 votes to 3,472, a split that gives 55 percent voter approval to the incumbent. The race to replace retiring incumbent Joe Green in Vista’s District 2 was a little more lopsided with Jeff Fox taking 62.4 percent of ballots cast, earning 6,020 votes to fellow hopeful Anthony White’s 3,631.
Fox, who owns Fox Media, a local digital marketing company based in the city’s downtown district, listed reducing violent crime rates as one of his top issues.
“I’m thankful to all the friends and volunteers that helped me get this far and I’m excited to continue doing everything I can for the city I love,” Fox said on election night. “I also want to compliment Anthony White, my opponent, for running a solid positive race with integrity the whole time.”
Melendez made housing her signature issue, recently bringing focus to the plight of soon-to-be-evicted residents of the RV park at Green Oak Ranch in south Vista. She said on election night that the polling results make it “clear we want to continue to see progress in Vista.
“I have diligently fought for affordable housing and infrastructure in our working class neighborhoods.”
