Bruce Gibson wins race for District 2 SLO County supervisor — by just 13 votes

Bruce Gibson won the District 2 Board of Supervisors race by a margin of only 13 votes, according to San Luis Obispo County’s final election results released Wednesday.

That means control of the Board of Supervisors will shift, with three liberal supervisors now in the majority for the next two years.

The final count showed Gibson with 11,722 votes, or 50.03%, and Republican challenger Dr. Bruce Jones with 11,709 votes, or 49.97%.

Gibson said he was proud to reach across party lines and garner support from Democrat, Republican and moderate voters.

“This is a victory for people who care about good governance,” Gibson said. “We were able to make the case that experience counts, that knowledge of county government counts, that efforts to do things constructively and to the benefit of everyone in the county is important.”

Jones declined to comment on the election results.

“I’m just trying to figure out what’s happening,” Jones said.

When The Tribune asked SLO County Republican Party official Erik Gorham if the party planned to request a recount, he said, “We’re looking into our options.”

Gorham declined to comment further but said the party plans to release a statement later this week.

Any California voter can request a recount within five days of the county certifying the election, according to the California Secretary of State’s Office website.

Gibson overcame Republican registration advantage in District 2

In the final tally, 830 ballots were added to the total with Jones receiving 427 and Gibson 403. That further narrowed the gap that had been 37 after the last count two weeks go.

But it wasn’t enough for Jones to overcome the lead Gibson built coming out of Election Night on Nov. 8 and then expanded to 1,009 on Nov. 11.

Gibson retained his seat despite radical gerrymandering in the redistricting process that turned District 2 into an oddball region spanning portions of both the North Coast and the North County — resulting in a district with more registered Republican voters than registered Democrats.

“The district was drawn specifically to my disadvantage, but I’m really grateful to note that there are enough folks in this county paying attention to county government that it didn’t matter,” Gibson said.

Gibson now joins Jimmy Paulding and Dawn Ortiz-Legg as a 3-2 majority on the board, which also includes John Peschong and Debbie Arnold.

Supervisor pledges ‘good governance’

“This is now a board majority that wants to get things done,” Gibson said. “This is a board majority that is going to make policy based on facts. It’s going to consider the interests of all the residents of the county, and it’s going to serve a broader county and not just the friends or political allies.”

“It’s beyond the question of partisan political philosophy,” Gibson said. ”It’s going to be about good governance, and I’m excited to work with people who care about that and who will be able to accomplish good things.”

Gibson said he’s looking forward to creating policy that addresses homelessness and protects the county’s water supply, along with repairing the district map that is currently in court for gerrymandering.

Gibson’s victory was even closer than Paulding’s win over Lynn Compton in the District 4 Supervisor race, which was decided by a margin of 639 votes.

The final batch of ballots brings SLO County’s voter participation rate to 66% with 121,156 ballots cast out of 182,291 sent out, according to the Clerk-Recorder’s Office.

“We are just so unbelievably happy,” Gibson said. “So many people did so much to get us this victory. I’m just excited as can be about what we’ll be able to accomplish.”