Sonoma County Sheriff’s Captain Mark Essick gained a staggering response from voters favoring him as the winner of the sheriff’s race, easily outdistancing challengers John Mutz and Ernesto Olivares.
Essick jumped off to a tremendous lead in early returns and finished with 57 percent of the popular vote after absentee ballots and all 405 precincts were counted, according to Sonoma County Registrar of Voters. Essick needed to get over half the vote in order to avoid a runoff in the November election.
Unofficial results revealed nearly 71,000 votes were cast in the primary election, with approximately 50,000 absentees.
Mutz, a former Los Angles police commander, received 24 percent of the vote while Olivares, an incumbent Santa Rosa councilman, nabbed only 18 percent.
Although late arriving absentee ballots remain uncounted, they are not expected to change the outcome
Essick, a captain in the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office and lifelong resident of the North Bay, started his law enforcement career as correctional officer and worked his way up through the ranks.
With 24 years of service at the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office, Essick said he was confident he was more qualified for the job. His message to voters throughout the campaign was getting “back to the basics, ensuring public safety above all else, being fair and accountable and building partnerships to better engage with the community we serve.”
On election night Essick said he was overjoyed with the numbers.
“I did not anticipate the numbers to come in so strong,” he said.
Under the county’s nonpartisan election rules, if a candidate receives more than 50 percent of the vote in the primary, the race is over and that candidate takes office in January.
Supporters, friends and family of Essick gathered at Flamingo Hotel and Resort in Santa Rosa for an election watch party on Tuesday evening. After more than half of the votes were counted Essick said he believed his experience in the sheriff’s office resonated with voters.
“People trusted that I was the person to do that,” he said.
He commended the two other candidates in the race.
“They ran a great race,” Essick said. “They are fine men with very distinguished careers.”
Olivares spent the evening at Epicenter Sports and Entertainment in Santa Rosa with his family and supporters. John Mutz and his supporters gathered at Stout Brothers Irish Pub in Santa Rosa.
Essick will step into one of the most significant roles any county elected official can take on with an operating budget of $180 million, almost half the county’s general budget. The sheriff will also direct a staff of more than 650 employees.
The organizations backing Essick’s race financially included the Sonoma County Deputy Sheriffs Association, the Sonoma County Law Enforcement Association, the Peace Officers Research Association of California-Northern Chapter, the Sonoma County Farm Bureau and the Sonoma County Alliance.
Essick is slated take over the post from incumbent Sheriff Rob Giordano. Sonoma County hasn’t had a contested race for sheriff since 1990 when Mark Ihde, a lieutenant in the sheriff’s department, challenged his boss, Sheriff Dick Michaelsen, winning in an upset in that June’s primary race.
