Marin election aftermath: Supervisorial cliffhanger, rent-control rebuff

The race for the District 2 seat on the Marin County Board of Supervisors might be too close to call, but Tuesday’s election left no doubt how some Marin residents feel about rent control.

As of Wednesday, San Anselmo Councilmember Brian Colbert held a narrow lead over Kentfield resident Heather McPhail Sridharan in the contest for the supervisorial seat. Colbert collected 7,652 votes, or 50.71% of the total counted so far, while McPhail Sridharan had 7,437 votes, or 49.29%.

McPhail Sridharan is not conceding.

“The race is very close and it’s important that every vote gets counted,” she wrote in an email Wednesday. “We are expecting a 90%+ voter turnout, which would mean there are still approximately 14,000 votes left to be counted. I am deeply grateful for the outpouring of support I have received.”

Colbert said he is “cautiously optimistic that my current lead will hold.”

Prior to the election, Registrar of Voters Lynda Roberts projected that turnout in Marin would top 90% based on the previous presidential election in 2020.

Countywide, the elections office had about 85,000 ballots counted on Election Day.

“We have approximately 65,000 ballots in various stages of processing,” Roberts said Wednesday. “Over 50,000 of those ballots arrived Monday or Tuesday. We will have another results update this Friday by 5 p.m.”

Colbert finished first in the March primary, which involved five candidates. He collected 43% of the vote, while McPhail Sridharan finished second with 26%. A runoff was required because neither had a majority.

Colbert was endorsed by Supervisor Katie Rice, who did not seek reelection to the seat. If elected, Colbert will be the county’s first Black supervisor.

Competing with the supervisorial election for attention on Tuesday were ballot measures that would have imposed or strengthened rent-control laws in Larkspur, Fairfax and San Anselmo. All four of the measures appear to be failing badly.

In Larkspur, voters weighed in on Measure K, which would stiffen the rent-control ordinance voters narrowly upheld in March while also adding tenant protections. Fairfax residents voted on Measure I, which would repeal the rent-control and renter protections that the Town Council approved in 2022.

In San Anselmo, voters considered two rent-control measures. Measure N would enact a rent-control ordinance approved by the Town Council by a 3-2 vote in April, and Measure O would penalize landlords of properties with three or more dwellings who terminate a tenancy due to no fault of the tenant.

As of Wednesday, Measure I was passing with 66.5% support. Measure K was being rejected with 62.85% of the vote in opposition. Measure N was failing with 65.76% of the vote opposing adoption, and Measure O is losing with 69.06% of the vote opposed.

“We probably weren’t expecting a win as great as we got, but it was nice to see,” said Michael Burke, a real estate agent who played an active role in opposing the measures. “It’s sending a strong message to the Democratic Socialists of America and others who are trying to impose local extreme rent controls on local municipalities that this isn’t going to work in Marin, and it’s not going to work in the rest of the state.”

Michael Sexton, director of Marin Residents — a nonprofit composed of homeowners, housing providers and renters — said the organization is “elated that the early results show that the people of Marin understand that the difficult issue of housing affordability requires serious, reality-based solutions, not extreme rent control.”

“We think that the result sends a strong message to the town councils that major economic policy can not just be imposed, but rather needs the consent of the people,” Sexton said.

Curt Ries, co-chair of the Marin Democratic Socialists of America and a lead organizer on the ballot measure campaigns, said the preliminary results “show how big money from corporate landlords and wealthy real estate interests are able to buy our elections and undermine our democracy.”

“Unfortunately, the extreme disinformation campaign from the other side, fueled by hundreds of thousands of dollars, appears to have done its work,” Ries said.

Opponents of rent control contributed over $361,000 to efforts to defeat Measures K, N and O and pass Measure I. Contributors included the California Association of Realtors, the California Apartment Association and several real estate investment firms, including Hummingbird Hill Limited Partnership, which lists Andrea Schultz, a prominent Marin businesswoman, as its agent to contact.

Campaign committees working to pass the rent-control measures received about $158,000 in contributions, with $100,000 coming from the San Francisco Foundation.

“Everybody kept talking about the mom and pop landlords,” said Pat Johnstone, chair of the Democratic Central Committee of Marin, “but it wasn’t the mom and pops that were fighting this. Rent control has been a core issue for the California Democratic party for over a decade. We have work to do.”

Brian Sobel, a Petaluma political analyst, said he doubts money was the deciding factor in the defeat of the rent-control measures.

“Marin County is affluent,” Sobel said. “There are a lot of people that own second properties. The idea that you’re going to give local government carte blanche to enforce rent control over all of these properties, I just think it didn’t sit well with the voters.”

Rent control might also help determine who wins the race for three seats on the Fairfax Town Council. Three incumbents who voted to approve a rent-control ordinance in 2022 were seeking re-election, and only one, Barbara Coler, is winning.

As of Wednesday, Coler was clinging to third place with 13.24% of the vote, but challenger Cindy Swift was close behind her with 12.63%.

The two Fairfax candidates who have garnered the most votes so far both opposed the rent-control ordinance as well as other initiatives of the current council.

Frank Egger, who served on the council from 1966 to 2005, is in first place with 22.35% of the vote in the field of seven candidates.

“Quite a comeback, huh,” Egger said. “Unfortunately, the Fairfax Town Council created a lot of division in town with their rent-control and just-cause-for-eviction measures.”

Mike Ghiringhelli, also a former member of the council, is in second place with 19.43% of the vote.

“Nobody likes rent control, OK, I think that was pretty much proven,” Ghiringhelli said. “The folks in Fairfax disliked the fact that the Town Council didn’t listen to them. They acted arbitrarily and ignored the people.”