April 12, 2008 - Final tally confirms incumbents

Paper: Monterey County Herald, The (CA)
Title: Final tally confirms incumbents
Date: April 12, 2008
Author: DENNIS TAYLOR

Monterey County election officials have counted all the votes in Tuesday's Carmel election, revealing no changes in the final results of a tight contest for City Council.

Incumbents Karen Sharp and Ken Talmage were re-elected to Carmel's council by a narrow margin over challenger Michael LePage, while Sue McCloud won a fifth term as mayor over protest candidate Dogman McBill.

After certifying nearly 100 mail-in and provisional ballots that could not be counted election night, Monterey County Registrar Linda Tulett reported that Sharp received 784 votes and Talmage got 769 to retain their seats, while LePage finished with 747.

McCloud was re-elected with 926 votes, while McBill garnered 312.

LePage said the strong support he received from voters is reason enough to consider taking another shot at the council in the future.

"That's definitely something you think very seriously about when you have such a close election," he said. "I think one of the things that happens during something like this is that your stature in the community changes a little bit, and you therefore have a responsibility to acknowledge that.

"I've put myself in some leadership roles during the campaign and a lot of those issues haven't yet been resolved," said LePage, a strong advocate of consolidating the Carmel, Monterey and Pacific Grove fire departments. "When the fire department consolidation issue comes before council, I definitely plan to speak to that."

Sharp, who will begin her second term on the council, said she will turn her focus, in part, to Carmel's parking problems — an issue she became more concerned about during the two-month campaign period that led up to the election.

"I heard a lot of complaints and concerns about our parking situation," she said. "Since Carmel-by-the-Sea is only one square mile, parking space is limited, which causes inconveniences for a lot of people. I think increasing parking time from 90 minutes to two hours is an idea that could provide a little bit of relief, while not solving the entire problem. We're still kicking around some ideas."

McBill said Friday that he plans to run against McCloud for the third time in a couple of years.

"I've started already, and next time I'm going to win," he said. "I'm a perennial candidate, yeah, but I'm not a token candidate. I got 325 votes last time I ran against Sue (in 2006) and 312 this time. I owe something to those people who voted for me, and I plan to be at every City Hall meeting from this point on. I'm going to learn something, so next time I run for mayor, I'll have some experience."

Tulett said 1,373 ballots were cast, a turnout of 49 percent of registered Carmel voters .

Dennis Taylor can be reached at dtaylor@montereyherald.com or 646-4344.

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Section: News
Page: B1
Record Number: 14866132
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