Kate Harrison leads Ben Gould by more than
500 votes in Tuesday’s special election.

BERKELEY CITY COUNCIL
Kate Harrison is cruising to victory in Tuesday night’s special election for the open Berkeley City Council District 4 seat.

Early results from the Alameda County Registrar of Voters Tuesday night show Harrison leading Ben Gould by a 550-vote margin.

The seat was vacated last November upon former District 4 representative Jesse Arreguin’s election as mayor.

Harrison received 1,278 votes to Gould’s 728. By percentage, Harrison leads by a dominating 64 percent to 36 percent of 9,453 registered voters in Berkeley’s District 4.

If the results hold up, it would be Ben Gould’s
second Berkeley election defeat since November.

Tuesday’s special election is actually the end of a month-long vote-by-mail-only special election in Berkeley that cost city taxpayers more than $150,000 to execute.

Pending official results, Harrison’s council term is for two years, the remainder of Arreguin’s previous term. Meaning she would need to run for a full four-year term in November 2018.

Harrison’s victory is likely to uplift Berkeley progressives. She is co-founder of the Berkeley Progressive Alliance.

For Gould, it’s been a difficult past few months. Before tonight’s result, the Cal graduate student finished fifth in the eight-candidate Berkeley mayoral race last November.

Advertisement