Voice of OC (https://voiceofoc.org/tag/manny-escamilla/)
What happens today could set the stage for the November general election, and impact the future of Santa Ana politics. If voters want Iglesias out, they’ll have three different replacement candidates, all backed by different people, to choose from.
Bacerra won the Ward 4 seat he lost last year to Roman Reyna, who later resigned and pled guilty to election fraud after Bacerra pursued legal action against him.
The real estate consultant and former city planning commissioner was leading former city planner Manny Escamilla by 150 votes in Tuesday’s update, and there appeared to be too few left in play to change Bacerra’s winning position.
Manny Escamilla narrowed his gap behind Phil Bacerra from 6 percentage points on election night 1.1 points Friday. Vote counting continues Tuesday.
Phil Bacerra, a real estate consultant and former city planning commissioner, held on to his lead for a City Council seat in the third day of election results Thursday, as former city planner Manny Escamilla closed in slightly, from 2.4 percentage points to 2.0 points behind Bacerra.
Vote counting will continue through at least Friday.
It’s still early; in last year’s primary election, almost half of all ballots in Orange County were not yet counted at of the end of election night.
Voters are deciding on a council member who will potentially impact key decisions on local issues like the ongoing homelessness crisis and complaints about slow 9-1-1 response times.