Kern County Election Trainwreck Continued: After TEN DAYS, Only 71% Of The Ballots Have Been Counted – RIDGECREST CITY COUNCIL ELECTION 2022: ENDORSEMENTS, PREDICTIONS AND RESULTS
UPDATE 11/18/22: Kern County Clerk Urges Voters To Think Of It As “Election Season”, Machine Broken, Biden Won, Measure “K” on Fumes
ELECTION UPDATE – DAY 10 – 11/18/2022 5:30 p.m.
Kern County has counted approximately 71% of the ballots RECEIVED to date. With 17,206 ballots counted since Tuesday’s update, that means Kern County is now counting only 5,735 ballots per day. At the current rate, with 38,174 ballots to count, it will take the Elections department another 7 work days to complete counting the ballots in an election where only 21% of the registered voters in Kern County actually voted.
The next update will be Monday, November 21st:
The updated-not-final ballot counts are below. Kevin McCarthy continues to mount an insurmountable lead with a grand total of 60,445 votes in Kern County. It’s estimated he’ll have 75,000 when the ballots are finally counted.
Meanwhile the City of Ridgecrest falls asleep and gives-up on ever knowing who actually won, not that anybody cares, though Ridgecrest does have a higher voter participation rate coming in at 26%.
This is why Kern County Clerk Mary Bedard urges voters as they wait for results from election day to think of it as election season. That season is happening as the election’s office continues to process ballots from the midterm election.
According to the election’s office, recently the ballot sorting machine was down for repairs. However, it is now fixed and working, but with the process it takes and the time it was down, this could make the process of knowing results even longer.
KGET by: Mikhala Armstrong
Measure “P” looks like “Yes” is holding on, so it’s champagne toasts down at City Hall,
And Kern County “Yes” on Measure “K” is only ahead by a small margin of just 128 votes:
UPDATE 11/17/2022 via California Secretary of State’s office, California Counties that use Dominion Imagecast Voting Systems:
Alameda, Butte, Contra Costa, Colusa, Del Norte, El Dorado, Fresno, Glenn, Imperial, Inyo, Kern, Kings, Madera, Mariposa, Marin, Mono, Monterey, Napa, Placer, Plumas, Riverside, Sacramento, San Benito, San Bernardino, San Diego, San Luis Obispo, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Barbara, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, Shasta, Siskiyou, Sonoma, Sutter, Tehama, Tulare, Tuolumne, Ventura, and Yuba.
Ahem.
Update 11/15/2022 4:00 p.m.
Kern County Election Trainwreck Continued: After One Week, Only 66% Of The Ballots Have Been Counted
November 15, 2022
Ridgecrest, California
113,000 Ballots Counted, 53,380 Ballots uncounted. Why does it take Kern County so long? And now we wait until Friday November 18th, 10 days after the election:
Voter apathy continues to be the news from Kern County California. Thus far, over a week after the polls have closed, Congressman Kevin McCarthy has only been able to attract the support of 75,000 voters in his home county of 925,000 residents. We previously estimated his total votes in Kern County will be less than 75,000 and that number still stands.
Kern County has counted only 113,000 ballots and still has 55,380 ballots to count. In other words, only 66% of the ballots cast have been counted a week after the election.
McCarthy has 50,143 votes. Percentages don’t matter.
City of Ridgecrest: Mayor Bruen currently has a 744 vote lead and 2,801 votes in a city with 15,964 registered voters.
Measure “P” 1% sales tax increase has 2,774 votes “Yes” and is leading by 303 votes.
Kern County Measure “K” is leading with a 301 votes out of a total of 40,066 votes.
UPDATE 11/13/22 2:00 p.m. – THE STEAL: The Number of House Seats Continues to Dwindle As GOP Leaders Remain Silent and Ignore Reality
We said earlier “California’s election result shows a dramatic loss of voter participation. We’ve illustrated the fact that California’s mail-in ballot system is corrupted beyond repair. It’s something Kevin McCarthy and The Daily Independent would rather not talk about. They like things just the way they are.”
You would think the media would be in an uproar. But no, judging by the way the local and mainstream media ignore the big story of this election and how it’s rigged for corruption, it falls on non-essentials like us to point things out for you. It’s nearly a week after the polls closed and Kern County is taking the weekend off with 45% of the vote uncounted.
Pathetic Kern County Election Department Takes The Weekend Off With Only 55% Of The Vote Counted!
What’s worse than Kern County’s inability to count ballots? Only 21% of the registered voters have bothered to return their ballots in Kern County! For those of you that are math-challenged noobs, like John Watkins, publisher of The Daily Independent newspaper, that means the 80% of the registered voters couldn’t pull away from Faceook long enough to fill out a ballot and drop it in a mailbox.
Note: 93,693 is the number of ballots that Kern County has processed. They still have 72,428 ballots remaining (43.6%).
In Kern County, with a population of 925,000, registered voters are less than half of the population coming in at 435,868. Put another way, in a County of 925,000, Kevin McCarthy could only persuade around 75,000 die-hards and mostly disgruntled Republicans to vote for him while he eagerly plans to be next Speaker of the House.
Congressman McCarthy can parade around DC and wave the flag all day long, but in Kern County, to say he won anything other than another two years would be an overstatement. He didn’t win an election because the Republican electorate in California has been cancelled and stayed home. He’s lost the support of the vast majority of the residents of his home district, both Republicans, Democrats and Independents. McCarthy’s district has the lowest voter turnout rates in the State of California and the highest homicide rate. Hmmm.
And you thought the election was over. Where’s Kevin?
UPDATE 11/12/22 REALLY BIG NEWS HEADLINE! Kevin McCarthy Is Re-elected With MASSIVE Voter Apathy, Voter Approval Rate of Only 16.15%
Can you imagine what life is like for Congressman Kevin McCarthy (CA-20) from Bakersfield? He has to fly “home” for a silly thing called an election and stage a victory celebration as soon as the polls close, all while doing interviews on national TV. But from Bakersfield? Ugh. Pity them all and take a redeye back to DC. We wonder if he knows his voter participation approval rate is only 16.15%.
Voter Participation Rate is votes received expressed as a percentage of total eligible voters. Based on current counted ballots at 55%, McCarthy’s voter participation rate in Kern County will be approximately 16.15%
McCarthy Estimated Total Votes: 68,889
McCarthy Voter Participation Rate: 16.15% (68,889/426635)
Note: Kern County votes does not include Tulare County votes for McCarthy.
| PARTY PREFERENCE | DP | R | AIP | GRN | LIB | PF | NPP | MISC | TOTAL |
| City of Ridgecrest | 3725 | 7211 | 888 | 57 | 344 | 88 | 3400 | 252 | 15965 |
| Kern County | 149378 | 154529 | 18601 | 1301 | 5407 | 2988 | 87422 | 7009 | 426635 |
UPDATE 11/11/22 What’s Up With The Mastheads?
We noticed that today, Kern County changed their masthead from “Unofficial FINAL Results” on November 9th (below), to “Unofficial UPDATED Results” (above) on November 11th. For three days after the polls closed, anyone that looked up results just might have been stupid enough to believe the election results were “final” albeit unofficial.
November 9 through November 11 masthead: Unofficial Final Results as of 11/9/2022 2:14:22 AM
It may seem like a minor mistake but nah, we think Kern County wants the average noob to check the website and assume the results are final. Nothing to see here, just winners and losers, all is well, no worries, move along. The Kern County Elections department couldn’t be so incompetent to make such an obvious and silly mistake, could they?
Let’s say another noob by the name of John Watkins, the publisher of The Daily Independent newspaper and one of the more well-informed and well-connected players in Kern County’s politics, and who’s definitely a “friend of Kevin”, goes to the same Kernvote website and publishes the masthead below, knowing full well the election results are nowhere near “final”.
You see people, this is how the game is played. It would be absurd to think anything so wrongly titled could confuse the public and The Daily Independent at the same time. Right? Nobody could be so stupid to think the “unofficial FINAL results” posted at 2:11 a.m. Wednesday morning could actually be FINAL? No way.
You believe what you want to believe, but don’t be a noob like John Watkins.
And why would it take three days to correct the heading on both Kern County’s election page and The Daily Independent’s masthead anyway? LOL. It’s probably just pure coincidence, incompetence (not) or a competently executed three day misinformation play designed to demoralize the opposition, like Fox calling Arizona for Biden in 2020.
California’s election result shows a dramatic loss of voter participation. We’ve illustrated the fact that California’s mail-in ballot system is corrupted beyond repair. It’s something Kevin McCarthy and The Daily Independent would rather not talk about. They like things just the way they are.
For more information on this issue, scroll down to the section Kern County Elections Trainwreck: “The majority of votes have not yet been counted”
UPDATE 11/11/22 4:30 P.M. – PATHETIC KERN COUNTY ELECTION DEPARTMENT TAKES THE WEEKEND OFF WITH ONLY 55% OF THE VOTE COUNTED
With 72,428 unprocessed ballots and approximately 89,000 processed to date a total of 161,428 ballots have been received or counted by the Elections Department.
This means that only 55% of the vote in Kern County has been counted and we won’t recieve any more postings until next Tuesday. Pathetic job Kern County.
Update 11/11/22 3:47 p.m. Mayor Eric Bruen
Our eager Mayor couldn’t wait any longer and “accepts the role of Mayor for a second term” with less than 50% of the votes counted. He’s also congratulated Councilman Scott Hayman for being re-elected to a second term with a lead of 237 votes and over 3,750 ballots left to be counted. Bruen currently has 2,172 votes.
Update 11/11/22 2:05 p.m – Approximately 50% of Votes Counted in Ridgecrest’s Election
Kern County has processed approximately 34,000 ballots as of the last data drop from early Wednesday morning. Approxmiately 72,000 ballots remain to be processed. A total of approximately 89,000 ballots have been processed by the Kern County Elections Department since the polls closed.
Voter participation in 2022 has been terrible, possibly as low as 35%, although some fear that California may break the record for low voter turnout.
We now estimate that Ridgecrest’s outstanding ballots at 3,750 for a total mayoral count of approximately 7,500 votes. This is below our original estimate of approximately 9,500. Even still, at 7,500 ballots cast, the total of ballots processed for the City of Ridgecrest is only 50% with 3750 ballots estimated to be processed.
The top three candidates for City Council are separated by only 237 votes, while Mayor Eric Bruen leads Tom Wiknich by 654 votes.
Measure “P” has widened it’s lead to 347 votes with 54% voting Yes.
| Completed Precincts: 16 of 16 | VOTE COUNT | PERCENTAGE |
| ERIC A BRUEN | 2172 | 57.95% |
| THOMAS R WIKNICH | 1518 | 40.50% |
| JOHN “JD” ZIPP | 58 | 1.55% |
| TOTAL VOTES | 3748 |
| Completed Precincts: 16 of 16 | VOTE COUNT | PERCENTAGE |
| LOREN SCOTT HAYMAN | 1860 | 30.50% |
| JOHN P “SKIP” GORMAN | 1716 | 28.14% |
| CHRISTOPHER ELLIS | 1623 | 26.62% |
| SCOTT K MILLER | 899 | 14.74% |
| Measure “P” | VOTE COUNT | PERCENTAGE |
| YES | 2148 | 54.39% |
| NO | 1801 | 45.61% |
Update 11/11/2022 11:30 a.m.
The Daily Independent: Still 100,000 votes to count in Kern County. Bruen, Measure P still lead; Inyo and Mono push Slayton ahead of Scrivner
It’s about time: After 3 days, The Daily Independent retracts website banner declaring Ridgecrest election winners and corrects the record here.
11/10/2022: KERN COUNTY ELECTIONS TRAINWRECK UPDATE: 66% of Kern County’s Vote is UNCOUNTED
Next posting of Unoffical Elections Results: Friday, November 11, 2022
Estimated ballots remaining to be processed: 106,683
Kernvote.com
- Mail Ballots: 104,057
- Provisional Ballots: 1,972
- Conditional Voter Registration Ballots: 554
- Other (including unprocessed ballots that are damaged, need to be remade, or require further review): 100
Unacceptable: Only 33% of Kern County’s ballots have been counted as of today, Thursday November 10th, at 5:00 p.m. We estimate over 6,000 ballots remain to be counted from the City of Ridgecrest, with only 2,390 total ballots counted for Mayor thus far.
We estimate approximately 55,000 ballots have been counted by the Kern County Elections department as of today. We used the statewide contests as total counted ballots.The remaining number of ballots to be processed is 106,683. This means that 66% of the Kern County vote has yet to be counted. Someone please tell the DI the election isn’t over.
Mayor Eric Bruen has won re-election and Measure P has passed, according to the unofficial final results from the Kern County Elections Division, posted at 2:14 a.m. Wednesday.
Bruen had 1,298 votes, 56.21%, while Thomas Wiknich had 1,011 votes, 43.79%. Write-in candidate John “JD” Zipp had none.
The Daily Independent, November 9, 2022Loren Scott Hayman led all vote-getters for city council with 1,124 votes, 29.92%, while John “Skip” Gorman had 1,066, 28.37%. The top two win election. Following were Christopher Ellis with 975 votes, 25.95%, and Scott Miller with 592 votes, 15.76%.
11/10/22 Kern County Elections Trainwreck: “The majority of votes have not yet been counted”
Current Unofficial “Final” Results as of 11/9/2022 at 2:14:22 a.m.
On Thu Nov 10 06:52:13 PST 2022
Mike Sinnott
Publisher Roadrunner 395.com
Sent the following letter thru email:
To: All City Council Candidates, City Council, Kern County Elections, Daily Independent and News Review
Re: Corrupted beyond repair
What do you say about California’s mail-in voting system? The majority of votes in Kern County haven’t been counted yet (as of 6:00 a.m. this morning).
Mail-in voting has thoroughly corrupted California’s election process, and newspapers like The Daily Independent lie to you with no consequences. No Mr. John Watkins, Publisher of The Daily Independent, Mayor Bruen has NOT been re-elected and Measure “P” has not passed.
Citing “unofficial final results” from the Kern County Elections webpage, it’s obvious today that the results are not final. That’s a lie coming straight from the County and The Daily Independent. It does not matter that Mayor Bruen might win, it’s that The Daily Independent is perpetuating the lie by hiding behind the “unofficial FINAL results” and obscuring the corruption by making you think otherwise.
As of today, nearly 36 hours after the polls have closed:
The “majority” of ballots have not yet been counted in Kern County.
Upwards of 90% of the total votes are mail-in votes or same-day drop box votes. Unless mail-in votes were mailed in via USPS by Friday or Saturday before election day, they have not yet been counted.
What can you do about this? Will you remain silent going forward? Why do you think voter participation in California is so pathetically low?
Do you realize that Kevin McCarthy, ostensibly the next Speaker of the House, will be re-elected with less than 75,000 total votes in a District spanning Kern County and parts of Tulare County. Kern County has 925,000 residents.
Now would be a good time to voice your concerns. If you don’t speak up about it, nothing will change. You can’t rely on The Daily Independent to inform you about issues such as election integrity, covid or groundwater. The Daily Independent is only concerned with maintaining the status quo, towing the company line and selling a few papers while kissing McCarthy’s ass for some advertising dollars every two years.
The election system in California is corrupted beyond repair, and The Daily Independent will be the last one to tell you the news.
Mike Sinnott, Publisher
Roadrunner395.com
Note: Drop-box votes, i.e. those votes deposited in a drop-box at a polling place on voting day, have not been counted either.
corruption kə-rŭp′shən noun
- The act or process of corrupting.
- The state of being corrupt.
- Decay; rot.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition. 
More at Wordnik
Ridgecrest Undecided
Update 11/9/22 8:49 p.m. The Daily Independent is wrong to call Bruen the winner:
Dear Daily Independent,
No, Bruen has not been re-elected, and Measure “P” has not passed. (Yet)
Mayor Eric Bruen has won re-election and Measure P has passed, according to the unofficial final results from the Kern County Elections Division, posted at 2:14 a.m. Wednesday.
Bruen had 1,298 votes, 56.21%, while Thomas Wiknich had 1,011 votes, 43.79%. Write-in candidate John “JD” Zipp had none.
The Daily Independent, November 9, 2022Loren Scott Hayman led all vote-getters for city council with 1,124 votes, 29.92%, while John “Skip” Gorman had 1,066, 28.37%. The top two win election. Following were Christopher Ellis with 975 votes, 25.95%, and Scott Miller with 592 votes, 15.76%.
Update from ABC 23 in Bakersfield (emphasis ours)
When asked if there was a possibility that election results could change, Mary Bedard, the Kern County Registrar of Voters, had this to say.
“Oh definitely, we have a very small percentage of the vote count. We don’t know the turnout yet at this point, but the majority of the votes still have not been counted.“
Bedard, who oversees the Kern County elections, says that the count is incomplete despite staying up until almost 3 a.m. the day after the election counting ballots.
https://www.turnto23.com/news/election-2022/election-outcomes-are-not-yet-final“Simply we finished counting the ballots cast at the polls yesterday,” explained Bedard. “We are not done “
UPDATE 11/9/22 4:30 p.m.
- Only 13% voter turnout in Kern County!
- McCarthy’s total vote count in Kern County is only 24,577 as of 11/9/22:
- Steve Scalise announces intention to challenge McCarthy as House majority leader, Supports McCarthy as Speaker of the House (via Foxnews.com)
- Could this be why voter turnout in McCarthy’s home county sucks?:
Redstate: You-Do Not Reward Mediocrity – Calls Grow For Kevin McCarthy And-Other Gop Leaders To Be Replaced
| U.S. Representative 20th Congressional District – Vote For 1 | ||
| Completed Precincts: 372 of 372 | VOTE COUNT | PERCENTAGE |
| KEVIN MCCARTHY – REP | 24577 | 71.24% |
| MARISA WOOD – DEM | 9924 | 28.76% |
Kern County Elections Department: “Tens of thousands of ballots” to be counted. Check back at the end of the day for updates.
How About some GOOD NEWS first: Over 40 inches of Snow fell on Mammoth Mountain in the last 24 hours and the Eastern Sierra is now white with snow very early in the season! Mammoth Is Forecasting Five FEET Of Snow (20+” Has Fallen Already)
11/9/22: Ridgecrest Undecided: How many mail-in votes are yet to be counted? (Answer: 66%)
Unofficial Final Results as of 11/9/22 at 2:14 a.m.
In the 2018 midterm, 8,528 votes were cast for Mayor of Ridgecrest. This year, we anticipated 9,591 votes would be cast for Mayor. In light of the large discrepancy between 2018 and 2022, we anticipate over 6,000 mail-in votes have yet to be counted in Ridgecrest’s elections. Total votes counted in the mayoral race stands at 2,309.
“YES” vote on Measure “P” leads “NO” by only 146 votes, and only 149 votes separate the 3 top three candidates for City Council. Hayman, Gorman and Ellis are in a tight race and anything is possible.
Incumbent Mayor Eric Bruen leads Tom Wiknich by a thin 287 vote margin.
Mail in Ballots could still change the outcome, from KGET at 7:40 p.m. on election night:
An estimated 15,000 provisional ballots are yet to be counted in the Golden Empire, while more than 57,000 vote-by-mail ballots are also set to be counted. County spokeswoman Megan Person said county elections representatives anticipate even more ballots will arrive in the mail. “We need to wait until they’re all here, and then we can count them,” she said. “It’s a really important part of the process.”
Total Vote Count – Mayor, City of Ridgecrest:
| 2014 (midterm) | 6300 |
| 2016 | 10320 |
| 2018 (midterm) | 8528 |
| 2020 | 11988 |
| 2022 (midterm) Current Vote Count for Mayor | 2309 |
| City of Ridgecrest Mayor-2 Year Term – Vote For 1 | ||
| Completed Precincts: 16 of 16 | VOTE COUNT | PERCENTAGE |
| ERIC A BRUEN | 1298 | 56.21% |
| THOMAS R WIKNICH | 1011 | 43.79% |
| JOHN “JD” ZIPP | 0 | 0.00% |
| CITY OF RIDGECREST Tax Measure P – Majority – Vote For 1 | ||
| Completed Precincts: 16 of 16 | VOTE COUNT | PERCENTAGE |
| YES | 1301 | 52.97% |
| NO | 1155 | 47.03% |
| COUNTY OF KERN Tax Measure K – Majority – Vote For 1 | ||
| Completed Precincts: 359 of 359 | VOTE COUNT | PERCENTAGE |
| YES | 9942 | 51.23% |
| NO | 9466 | 48.77% |
November 1, 2022
Ridgecrest, California
We love making predictions and speculating, so at the risk of giving you the reader a chance to ridicule, laugh and hurl derogatory at your humble, non-essential and sometimes cantankerous publisher, we present the outcome of the 2022 election for Ridgecrest City Council a full week in advance, without reservation and with great, well-deserved applause and cheers! See below for predictions and results. Check back when the votes are counted and see how we do.
Three council seats are up for grabs at the City of Ridgecrest and this election could mark a turning-point in the The Great Indian Wells Valley Water Wars. Voters are clear on one thing, the Indian Wells Valley Groundwater Authority is a lawsuit-riddled mess, and that’s a good thing for Ridgecrest’s property owners and water customers, as well as for all sewer and trash ratepayers. That’s about everyone in town including the homeless people and the Navy’s employees!
Roadrunner395.com Endorses Wiknich, Ellis and Gorman
It should come as no surprise that Roadrunner395.com endorses Tom Wiknich for Mayor. He has demonstrated many years of committment and service to the City of Ridgecrest and has served on the City Council before. He also knows water and the historic issues that surround the controversy of the Groundwater Authority. In addition, his experience as a project manager at China Lake will serve the City well as the projects to sustain our water supplies are developed. He’s also a fiscal conservative, whereas Mayor Bruen is admittedly “not a fiscal conservative” and has made little effort to engage in the groundwater issue, relying instead on Dr. Scott Hayman, a valley chiropractor, to be the City’s groundwater “expert”.
Chris Ellis is without a doubt one of the most qualified candidates to seek a seat on the City Council. His expertise and experience as General Manager of Coso Geothermal will be invaluable going forward as Ridgecrest and the Indian Wells Valley navigate through the issues created by the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act and the Indian Wells Valley Groundwater Authority.
Skip Gorman understands the issues surrounding the Groundwater Authority and has been a council watcher for many years. He’s also made the effort to attend GA meetings. He’s hopeful that he can help resolve some of the issues between the Indian Wells Valley Water District and the Groundwater Authority. That alone gets our endorsement whether he wants our support or not. We wish him well on the Council should he be elected and trust he won’t cling to the notion that the Groundwater Authority’s decisionmaking has been as “stellar” as Councilman Hayman says it is.
Mayor Eric Bruen won’t get votes from supporters of former council member Lindsey Stephens. We believe Stephen’s voters haven’t forgotten the Mower-Breeden flip immediately after the 2020 election and will vote for Mr. Wiknich instead of Mr. Bruen.
In addition, we believe Mayor Bruen has lost substantial support from those who voted for him in 2020 and are disappointed in his “performance” as Mayor. Mayor Bruen also has his hands full with a family and as CEO of a credit union, and he doesn’t have the time or inclination to confront the groundwater issue, repeatedly admitting he doesn’t know water while letting Scott Hayman run cover for him.
Scott Hayman hasn’t demonstrated any willingness to do anything but carry the GA’s water, pun intended, and he’s done a poor job as the City’s representative and chair on the Groundwater Authority. He has no technical, project or managerial skills and is a poor communicator. He’s also exhibited personal animosity to the members of IWV Water District and blocked the district’s representative Stan Rajtora from the chairmanship rotation on the Groundwater Board. He also shows animosity to anyone that challenges him on the issues and doesn’t return phone calls.
PREDICTIONS
Thomas R. Wiknich will surprise with 55% of the vote for Mayor.
Christoper Ellis and Skip Gorman will be elected to the Council with a 3 to 2 combined margin versus Scott Hayman and Scott Miller.
The Measure “P” Sales Tax measure will fail by a slim margin, 52% No.
Meet your new and improved Ridgecrest City Council!
Highlights and Rationale
- 9,591 votes will be cast in the race for Mayor, an increase over the 2018 midterm total of 8,528 and 20% below the 2020 general election total of 11,988.
- 19,182 votes will be cast in the race for two seats on the City Council. See the table below for an intuitive breakdown.
- Conservatives will tilt to Wiknich, motivated by opposition to the Measure “P” 1% sales tax increase. Wiknich also benefits from Red Wave midterm as his record is clear.
- Supporters of Lindsey Stephens who voted for her in 2020 won’t be voting for Bruen in 2022.
- Bruen describes himself as a “moderate” Republican and was a Democrat until he moved to Ridgecrest in 2004.
- Voter motivation: Pro-Sales Tax loses voter motivation, fiscal conservatism wins on voter motivation. Bruen “is not a fiscal conservative” and is not willing to spend the time to learn about “water”, admitting he doesn’t understand water.
- Endorsement: Weak McCarthy endorsment is not a factor or unfavorable to Bruen because of McCarthy’s poor approval rating.
- Endorsement: The Daily Independent’s weak endorsment of Bruen does not motivate voter support for a second 2 year term.
- Endorsement: Of course, all that matters is Roadrunner395’s endorsement and we’re pretty good at predicting things and don’t mind giving you someone to laugh at if we’re wrong, which is highly doubtful. We’ll find someone for you to laugh at just in case.
Mayor Predictions
| 2020 ELECTION RESULTS | 2020-2022 VOTE SHIFT | 2020 VOTE TOTAL less MIDTERM FACTOR (80% of total in 2020) | 2022 | 2022 ELECTION RESULTS To Come |
| ERIC A. BRUEN | 5235 | 4188 | 43.67% | |
| LINDSEY STEPHENS – 100% Wiknich | ||||
| THOMAS R. WIKNICH | 6754 | 5403 | 56.33% | |
| CHRISTIAN R. WEST – 50% or 723 Wiknich, 50% or 723 Bruen | ||||
| Total Votes 2020: 11,989 | Total Votes 2022: 9591 | 100% |
City Council Predictions (Vote for 2)
| Total Votes Cast for City Council | WAG Factor | 19,182 Total Votes | Actual To Come |
| Chris Ellis | 35% | 6713 | |
| Skip Gorman | 30% | 5754 | |
| Scott Hayman | 25% | 4795 | |
| Scott Miller | 10% | 1918 |
DEVELOPING NEWS: City Manager Ron Strand will be a topic of debate at Wednesday’s City Council Meeting. Mayor Eric Bruen and the City Attorney have added a 5 year contract extension for Strand to the agenda just a week before the election.
Currently, the City is having a management crisis and has lost 11 police officers in the last two years in addition to Public Works Director Travis Reed, who recently announced his departure to become the General Manager at the IWV Water District.
UPDATE 11/3/22: It looks like the Indian Wells Valley Water District’s general manager Don Zdeba will be putting his retirement plans on hold for a while longer. At Wednesday night’s Council meeting the City Council approved City Manager Ron Strand’s contract for five more years while at the same time authorizing a hybrid job position of Assistant City Manager-Public Works Director.
This move will pave the way for Travis Reed to become the City Manager as part of an exit strategy for Mr. Strand, who has served the City of Ridgecrest for over 35 years. Mr. Reed previously announced his intentions to accept an offer from the water district and was swayed by the opportunity to have a broader impact serving the community.
Update 11/6/22: Below are “Letter to the Editor” endorsments in The Daily Independent and The News Review newspapers. Chris Ellis and Tom Wiknich were the only candidates to have “Letters to the Editor” published with endorsments. We couldn’t find any letters of support for Mayor Eric Bruen or Councilman Scott Hayman published in the local papers.
The Daily Independent – Letters to the Editor
Don Cortichiato: Vote for Chris Ellis
Chip Holloway: Another Vote for Ellis
Ken Newton: An Endorsement for Tom Wiknich
The News Review – Letters to the Editor
Chip Holloway
Stuart Witt
Ronald L. Porter
Scott O’Neil endorses Chris Ellis
Chris Ellis has a broad knowledge and understanding of the on-going water supplies issues of this valley. He has worked collaboratively with major entities of this area and seeking solutions regarding the water issues. He sees ensuring an adaquate water supply for our future as the greatest challenge we face locally.
We also endorse John ‘Skip’ Gorman to serve on the City Council. He has a long history of involvement in this community. He has faithfully attended City Council meetings for decades. He has shown a genuine interest in the development of our community. He sees it as great place to raise a family and wants to continue contributing to that.Gorman is a good listener and a good communicator. He would serve us well as he is fair minded and has Ridgecrest’s best interest at heart.
ENDORSEMENT SCORECARD
| Candidate | Roadrunner395.com | The News Review | The Daily Independent |
| Eric Bruen, Incumbent | No | No Endorsement | Yes-Reservations |
| Tom Wiknich | Strong Yes | No Endorsement | No |
| Scott Hayman, Incumbent | No | No | Yes |
| Chris Ellis | Strong Yes | Strong Yes | Strong Yes |
| Skip Gorman | Yes | Yes | No |
| Scott Miller | No | No | No |
- roadrunner395
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- UPDATE 3/5/2023 OPEN LETTER To Cal State Bakersfield Political Science Professor Dr. Mark Martinez: What is Global Fascist-Nazism? March 14, 2023
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