The June Primary Ballot is now set and voters will have a number of contested races to decide, but also a fair number of races that will be walkovers for the incumbents.
According to information form the County Elections Office, in the race for Superior Court Office No. 1, Judge Gayle Peron is unchallenged and will retain her position. Also, Judge Erin Childs will also win a walkover for the No. 10 seat on the court.
Two men are vying for the No. 12 judgeship with attorney and rancher Paul Phillips vying against Deputy D.A. Mike Frye, a Morro Bay resident.
County Superintendent of Schools James Brescia will not face a challenge and will win another 4-year term. District Attorney Dan Dow and Sheriff Ian Parkinson will also not face challengers this time around.
County Assessor Tom Bordonaro will not be challenged for his seat this time nor will Tax Collector James Hamilton.
It’s a far cry from four years ago when Dow, Parkinson and Bordonaro each faced tough re-election challenges.
Dist. 2 Supervisor Bruce Gibson will face perhaps his toughest re-election campaign thus far, as he tries for a fifth, 4-year term.
But this time he’ll be running in a much-change Second District, which under the new supervisorial district map removed Morro Bay, San Luis Obispo and Los Osos from District 2, and inserted San Miguel and much of Atascadero.
That means Gibson will face challengers from outside what had been a very safe district.
Gibson is being challenged by Bruce Jones, Geoff Auslin and John Whitworth all of Atascadero.
Dist. 3 Supervisor, Dawn Ortiz-Legg will have to run to retain her seat, which she was appointed to in 2020 after former Supervisor Adam Hill died shortly after being re-elected but before taking the new oath of office.
Under the County Election Laws, Ortiz-Legg must face voters in what would have been mid-term for Hill had he not died. It also means that Dist. 3 will use the old supervisorial district map, which included much of South SLO, Pismo, Avila and some of Grover Beach.
Ortiz-Legg will face Arnold Ruiz of SLO and Grover Beach businesswoman Stacy Korsgaden who lost a very close head-to-head race to Hill in the March 2020 Primary.
Oddly enough, should Korsgaden win in June to serve out Hill’s term, she would be ineligible to run in 2024, when the new district map would apply to the redrawn Dist. 3. A judge ruled that Ortiz-Legg had to run this year using the old map. But in 2024, when Hill’s term would naturally have ended, the new Dist. 3 kicks in.
In the Dist. 4 race, incumbent Lynn Compton tries for her third term in a rematch of the 2018 race with Arroyo Grande Councilman Jimmy Paulding.
Los Osos, which was moved into Dist. 4 with the new map, should vote in this race.
In the Clerk-Recorder’s race, appointed incumbent Elaina Cano will have two challengers. James Arthur Baugh, a military consultant from Paso Robles is running, as is SLO attorney, Stewart Jenkins. Cano was appointed last year after former Clerk-Recorder Tommy Gong resigned and took a similar job in the Bay Area.
And in Morro Bay, appointed incumbent councilwoman Jen Ford will square off against retired businessman James Costanzo for the right to serve out the remaining time on the council term of the late-Red Davis, who died last summer just a few months into his second term, which he’d won in November 2020. Whoever wins in June will not face voters again until November 2024, when Davis’ term would naturally run out.
