In the midst of a tumultuous few weeks in Windsor, town residents headed to the polls this week to vote in a special election for a Windsor town council seat left vacant in November. It appears the fourth time is the charm for Rosa Reynoza, as early returns show her with a strong lead in initial tallies.
“As you know, this was my fourth attempt and all morning I’ve been like, ‘Wow, so this is how it feels,’ which is a feeling of not believing. My first thought was, ‘Is this really happening?’ It’s unbelievable,” Reynoza said when reached the morning after Election Day. “The extent of votes and percentages and then this morning with people reaching out to me to congratulate me. It’s overwhelming. The amazing support and emails and texts and phone calls, it’s an amazing feeling.”
The special election had, in and of itself, been a public battle, with strong factions on one side demanding the chance to fill the vacant seat by election and the other wanting to save the town the time, trouble and money by appointing someone.
The seat had belonged to Dominic Foppoli, Windsor’s at-large mayor who’s currently at the center of numerous allegations of sexual assault.
The seat being filled was vacated when Foppoli won the at-large mayorship last fall in the town’s first district elections. There were five candidates for his seat, which will expire next fall — Reynoza, Jeffrey Leasure, Oscar Chavez, Julia Donoho and Cody Wilson.
Out of that field and the wild atmosphere of the last few weeks, it appears that Reynoza, on her fourth try to get a seat at the town’s table, will get her wish. After the official vote count at 2:30 p.m. on May 5, she had a healthy lead of 3,112 votes over her two closest challengers, Chavez (1,158) and Leasure (1,150) votes each.
However, it will take some time to get a true count, as the election was done entirely by mail or drop-off, no polling places were utilized. The registrar’s office has said it stopped counting ballots at noon on May 4, so any turned in before the 8 p.m. deadline have yet to be counted. Similarly, mailed-in ballots only had to be postmarked by May 4, and can be received to be counted up until Friday, May 7.
“I knew I had some advantage here, because after attempting to be elected for so long I’m pretty well-known in the community compared to the other candidates,” Reynoza admitted. “The community and registered voters know who I am and they’ve seen my name and face. I definitely will not deny having an advantage at that point.
“Unfortunately, a part of the ugliness of what’s happening with the mayor and the accusations … it’s my opinion that it made people say, ‘Maybe we need someone on council that is down-to-earth, really grassroots, not tied into special interest groups,’” she continued.
Once all the votes are counted, the registrar’s office has until June 3 to certify the results. So, while the early numbers for Reynoza look strong, the possibility of a last minute race does exist. Voter turnout is currently standing at around 34%, a stark contrast to the fall election, when it hovered at around 90%.
While it has been posited that recent events had left a bad taste for politics in the mouth of voters, Reynoza believes the issue is something else. “What I was hearing was there was a lot of still confusion with it being a mail election,” she said. “Some people were still expecting to go to a polling place that day … many people holding on to their ballots. I’m hoping numbers will increase, but I do think there was some confusion, with it being mail and around what this election was for and that the recall was maybe going to change everything anyway.”
Reynoza has been known for her community work and volunteerism, and this campaign was no different. “People are finally saying, ‘Hey, let’s get someone in there that is not tied in and not connected and will be honest and really represent people of Windsor.’”
One of the items Reynoza wants to tackle first was actually brought up by Vice Mayor Sam Salmon at the last town council meeting: campaign finance reform and term limits. She also wants town council meetings to be continued on Zoom and other venues like Facebook Live or YouTube to encourage additional participation from community members.
She also wants to look into a suggestion brought forward by Councilmember Debora Fudge at the same meeting about getting rid of the elected mayor position and going to five districts with an appointed mayor.
“When we started to do redistricting, and I sat in those meetings, many of us in the audience asked (what is the difference between an elected mayor) and a rotating mayor,” she said. “No one was really clear and explained it, all they talked about was commission appointments. We didn’t have clear understanding, and now we can’t remove a mayor. It should have been obvious from the beginning what kind of complications we could have. So, I will do what I do best, which is to ask the community what they want and support what the majority of the community is interested in.”
Reynoza celebrated her poll numbers with a small gathering of close friends and family on the Town Green, and she called the experience “special.” But, she knows that the real work starts now.
“It means to me that I have been entrusted with a large responsibility and I have to work harder than ever to make sure I can fulfill the role that I’ve been entrusted with,” she said. “So many people have texted thanks for not giving up and for perseverance. I wasn’t ready to give up, and one reason was that I still had not found a candidate that I felt could do what I wanted to do. I want the people of Windsor to know our elected leaders should be one of them.
“We are one of them and I don’t know at what point things shift for elected leaders and I said last night (to my supporters), ‘Keep my feet on the ground. Help me if I’m not meeting expectations or going against something I promised you. Please call me out’ … Winning this means to me that I’ve been given a major responsibility and I’m going to work so hard to maintain trust with the community.”
Reynoza said she’d received congratulatory messages from various elected officials, both local and farther afield, including state senator Mike McGuire and Healdsburg council member Ariel Kelley.
“To know that all the service that I do … and knowing that now I have a platform that can reach further and get more support, that’s amazing to me. I cannot wait. I will take advantage of having this seat, title, position to reach and help more people in the community. And I’m going to have tears in my eyes for that.
“I really feel blessed this morning,” she finished with a smile.
