Malia Vella, a labor attorney and college instructor,
was the first-place vote-getter in Alameda’s City 
Council race Tuesday night.

ALAMEDA CITY COUNCIL |
2016 ELECTION |
Going into Election Day, labor and Democratic Party officials believed Alameda City Council candidate Malia Vella had put in enough work to win one of two open seats. They turned out to be right.

Vella, a first-time candidate, won 24.3 percent of the vote Tuesday night. She will join Councilmember Marilyn Ezzy Ashcraft, who won re-election with a second-place finish in the five-person race. Ashcraft received 22.1 percent.

“Thanks to the diverse coalition of Alamedans that believed in me,” said Vella. “We have a lot of work to do to unite our community and heal the divide to build a more inclusive Alameda. In some ways, with all we are facing nationally and locally it may seem overwhelming, but I know it’s possible.”

Councilmember Marilyn Ezzy Ashcraft won a second
term on the Alameda City Council.

Long-time Councilmember Tony Daysog, however, was turned out of office Tuesday night after
finishing third with 20.2 percent. Also rans, Jennifer Roloff received 18.3 percent, followed by former Councilmember Lena Tam, with 14.9 percent.

The result is another clear victory for Alameda’s powerful firefighters’ union. Both Vella and Ashcraft were backed by the labor union.

The reasons for Daysog’s defeat, however, are unclear at this point, but a spate of extremely vicious negative mailers over the past few weeks—some still mysterious as to the producer—slammed him for being opposed to seniors, veterans, while alleging he participated recently in a pay-to-play scheme. One mailer even linked Daysog to Donald Trump.

Alameda voters also gave another term to “The Kevins,” City Treasurer Kevin Kennedy and City Auditor Kevin Kearney. Both received nearly two-thirds of the vote.

On the school board side, appointed trustee Gray Harris was elected to a four-year term, along with Jennifer Williams and Ardella Dailey.

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