By Donald H. Harrison
SAN DIEGO — Not that he’s holding his breath, but there’s still a slim chance that Mat Kostrinsky may yet win a place in a runoff election against Scott Sherman in the 7th City Council District. Sherman’s 50.59 percent winning percentage does not include an uncertain number of the 88,000 “provisional” ballots collected throughout the city on Election Day.
Provisional ballots are those which were cast under irregular circumstances. Say a voter applied for an absentee ballot, but forgot to send it in, so he goes to his regular polling place and asks to vote. He is allowed to vote, but his ballot is kept with provisional ballots pending verification that he didn’t forget about sending in the absentee ballot.
Or, perhaps a voter couldn’t get to her regular polling place, because of work schedule, or visiting a hospital or some other reason, so she voted at another polling place — again with a provisional ballot.
Because such ballots could have been cast anywhere in the city, there is no way of knowing what percentage of the 88,000 ballots affected the five city council races that were conducted in June. The only way anyone will be certain is after they are counted.
Kostrinsky said he has been advised by the Registrar of Voters that all the provisional ballots are expected to be verified and counted sometime next week.
The semi-official returns for the 7th Council District indicated that a total of 25,209 ballots were cast in that race, and Sherman received a total of 12,754 votes — or a majority of 151 votes over the combined total of three opponents. Kostrinsky was in second place with 10,026 votes; Rik Hauptfeld followed with 1,437 and Nathan E. Johnson received 992 votes. If, in the recount, those three candidates together can receive 152 votes more than Sherman does, then–poof–Sherman’s majority disappears and he would be forced into a runoff with the next highest finisher, Kostrinsky.
If all the provisional votes came from the 7th Council District, Kostrinsky would be a lot more excited by his chances, but as there are nine city council districts altogether, the chances of a reversal are far less likely. Clearly, most of the provisional ballots will be in districts outside the 7th District, and therefore won’t affect the outcome of his contest with Sherman.
In an interview, Kostrinsky said with a smile in his voice that there was an election that he in fact won last week– he was elected to serve on the Foundation board of Green Elementary School, 7030 Wandermere Place.
Assuming provisional ballots don’t change the outcome of the 7th Council District election, Kostrinsky said he plans to return to work after July 4th as a home health advocate for the UDW Homecare Providers. Sometime before July 14th, there will be a groundbreaking ceremony for a new playground and park at Lake Murray for which he worked very hard, which he plans to attend. He said he also plans to continue advocating for a dog park to be built somewhere in the San Carlos/ Del Cerro/ Allied Gardens communities of San Diego, and to push for completion of the extension of the San Carlos Library.
Additionally, Kostrinsky said, he hopes to return to the board of directors of Jewish Family Service, on which he served before his campaign. He said he wants to work on programs to help seniors and the disabled.
While some opponents in political races develop a camaraderie as they appear before different groups in their district, or meet while walking precincts, no such relationship developed between Kostrinsky, a Democrat, and Sherman, a Republican. Kostrinsky said he telephoned Sherman after the semi-official returns to congratulate him on his apparent victory. He estimated that their perfunctory conversation lasted 30 seconds, and said that was five seconds longer than they had talked together during the entire campaign.
Looking back over the election, Kostrinsky said he was outspent and mischaracterized by the Sherman campaign, and that he was financially unable to respond to what he described as false attacks.
In contrast, he said, “I talked about my own record, what I have done, and win or lose, I led my campaign the way I’ve led my life, on a positive note.”
As for the general election in November, he said he’ll do whatever he can to help the campaigns of Scott Peters for Congress, Marty Block for state Senate and Bob Filner for mayor of San Diego.
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Harrison is editor of San Diego Jewish World. He can be contacted at donald.harrison@sdjewishworld.com