Local election recap

Bianca Cacciola, Editor-in-Chief

California participated in the Super Tuesday voting for the first time which sent registered voters to their local polls across the state on March 3.

Super Tuesday included 14 states across the country which voted on the presidential primaries, representatives’ seats for the counties within the states and county measures.

“I absolutely think [that the younger generation is shifting politics] just as far as social media being a major influence on who is getting elected,” said Trenton Morris, BC student and political science tutor on campus. “As far as policy wise, there is definitely more of a shift toward more socialist ideas.”

Despite the uproar in the weeks leading up to Super Tuesday, only 19.67 percent of Kern County’s 399,013 registered voters actually voted on a presidential candidate.

Here is a list of results of some of the categories voted on in Kern County according to Kern Vote.

Democratic presidential candidate

Bernie Sanders won Kern County with 33.18 percent of votes Biden trailed behind him in second with 27.62 percent. Bloomberg, who has since dropped from the race, came in third with 14.42 percent of the votes.

Republican presidential candidate 

Current president, Donald Trump, won the county’s votes with 95.93 percent

U.S. Representative 21st District

Democrat TJ Cox was able to hold his place in the 21st district with 43.75 percent of the votes, but was closely followed by republican David Valado who had 40.18 percent.

U.S. Representative 23rd District

Kevin McCarthy (Rep) won with 71.23 percent of the votes against his opponent Kim Mangone (Dem).

Member of the Assembly 32nd District

Rudy Salas (Dem) took the seat for another term with 68.86 percent of the votes.

Member of the Assembly 34th District

Republican Vince Fong got reelected with 75.01 percent despite being challenged by two other opponents, Julie Solis (Dem), who received the other 24.99 percent of the votes, and Regina Velasquez.

Supervisor, 4th District

David Couch won the county’s vote with 56.91 percent beating out his competitor, Emilio Huerta, who acquired the other 43.09 percent of votes. Controversy surrounded this category of the ballot with the two candidates running. In January, Couch filed paperwork with a local law agency in an attempt to prove Huerta wasn’t living in the district he was campaigning for. Huerta remained on the ballot, but still fell short to Couch.

City of Bakersfield Mayor

Mayor Karen Goh secured her reelection with 83.60 percent of the votes. Her opponents, Gregory Tatum and Joseph Caporali, both finished with a combined total of 16.40 percent of the votes. Mark Hudson came in last for the race with zero votes.

Proposition 13

This prop failed with 68.58 of people voting against it. Prop 13 was originally marketed out as a proposition to help fund the schools, but what the fine print read was that it could raise California taxes, at any time, to try and pay for the funding.

Measure D 

Measure D had 60.30 percent of voters who voted no. This measure would have allowed for medical marijuana dispensaries to work under no conditional use permit. It would also have not required them to have a special business tax, but the measure failed.

Measure E

Measure E, also dealing with cannabis, failed with 58.13 percent of voters saying no. This would have almost the same benefits for medical marijuana dispensaries as measure D, but would impose a 3.5 percent special business tax and they would have to have a conditional use permit.