It’s over, it’s all over and Antioch will have a new Mayor, Dr. Sean Wright

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Antioch Mayor-Elect Dr. Sean Wright, his wife Lani and their five children participated in the annual Holiday DeLites Parade, as they awaited the final election results, on Saturday, December 3, 2016.

“As exciting as any sports game I’ve ever been to” – Sean Wright

By Allen Payton

In the words of legendary sports announcer Howard Cosell, it’s over, it’s all over. After waiting almost four weeks, as the Contra Costa County Elections office counted the estimated 180,000 remaining ballots in the county not counted on Election Night, the people of Antioch finally learned on Saturday, they will have a new mayor.

The final election results in the race for Mayor of Antioch, posted on the County Elections website at 6:29 p.m., Saturday, December 3, 2016.

The final election results in the race for Mayor of Antioch, posted on the County Elections website at 6:29 p.m., Saturday, December 3, 2016.

With no more votes to count, according to County Clerk and Registrar of Voters Joe Canciamilla, Dr. Sean Wright has achieved victory over incumbent Mayor Wade Harper by just 67 votes. Wright garnered a total of 11,497 votes to Harper’s 11,430.

“I’m excited to serve the citizens of Antioch and looking to work with everybody in a team effort to make this a place that all of our friends want to live,” Wright said after hearing the news. “I’m tired of my friends moving. We all have friends that have left us.”

About the wait for the final results, he said with a laugh, “This was as exciting as any sports game I’ve ever been to, except it took three-and-a-half weeks to find a winner.”

“I want to thank the other candidates for their graciousness, and thank Wade for his graciousness and class in this close election,” Wright continued.

Initially trailing on Election Night by over 300 votes, Wright ended up in the lead, and then ahead by 259 votes with the first update on Thursday, November 10th. But, with every subsequent ballot count update, Wright’s lead continued to dwindle.

What was expected to be the final update on Friday, December 2nd, it showed Wright’s lead down to just 71 votes. By the second update that night at about 7:00 p.m., his lead had shrunk again to just 58 votes. But, with the final ballots counted in the entire county, Wright gained nine more votes to finish with a 67-vote victory on Saturday night, just as the annual Antioch Holiday DeLites Celebration ended, at the conclusion of the Lighted Boat Parade on the river.

“This election proves that every single vote matters,” he added. “When you’re considering voting, learn, pay attention and vote, because every vote matters.”

Wright will join Lamar Thorpe, who took first place in the City Council race and will be the city’s new Mayor Pro Tem, as well as Councilwoman Monica Wilson, who was re-elected to her second term, plus current Mayor Pro Tem Lori Ogorchock and Councilman Tony Tiscareno, on the council.

 

 


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6 Comments to “It’s over, it’s all over and Antioch will have a new Mayor, Dr. Sean Wright”

  1. Eric A. says:

    When a Race is this close, a recount should be automatic. How many of them come down to less than 100 votes between Candidates?

  2. Rjb says:

    So glad we have a new Mayor! Congrats Dr. Sean Wright. Clean up this city full of criminals and low lifes. As I said before, Harper got served his eviction notice. Now let’s clean up the rest of the incompetent people in office.

    One down… several more to go…

    Every vote counts. And in this case, there were about 67 smarter people that voted.

  3. James C Morris Sr. says:

    The outgoing council members and Wade Harper had a lot of gall in just passing a five year pay raise plan for city employees, with some 75% of it going to our lack luster police department. Antioch is the worst run city I have ever lived in, bar none! The city is still technically bankrupt, what with something like one to two million dollars in deficit funding for police retirement packages. Antioch’s solution is to up employee wages by over $11,000,000 over the next five years. Where else but in California can police retire on 90% of pay and benefits after 30 years on the job! ….AND that doesn’t include the sell back to the city of vacation and sick leave pay which can bring the retirement pay closer to 100% of final year compensation. Antioch even pays the police officer’s contribution to the Public Employees Retirement System. It isn’t bad enough that we have a high rate of crime due to Antioch’s use of Mello-Roos to allow developers to build housing “on the cheap”, thereby sucking in all the riff raff to fill the section 8 housing capitol of the greater Bay Area, but we get police who show little common sense in their execution of “Serving the Public”, and little evidence of crime suppression and criminal apprehension. Antioch is GUARANTEED TO BECOME BANKRUPT with this insane disregard for tax payers exhibited in Wade Harper’s exiting I.E.D. pay & benefits bomb left for Mayor Dr. Sean Wright to tip toe around. I hate to say it, but Dr. Wright, you have inherited a worse mess than has President Elect Donald Trump. If only Antioch could print money like the Federal Reserve Bank does, then Antioch’s deficit spending would make some sense out of the its complete insanity.

    • Publisher says:

      James,
      Just an FYI. Only one other council member is leaving with Harper, and that’s Mary Rocha who lost for re-election. The other three, Monica Wilson, who was re-elected, Tony Tisacareno and Lori Ogorchock will still be on the council.
      Allen Payton, Publisher

  4. Rebecca Fermon says:

    Congratulations to our new mayor Dr. Sean Wright, and also Lamar Thorpe on their win for office in Antioch city government.

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