History was made on election night as voters in Chula Vista elected the city’s first Latina mayor.
Councilwoman Mary Salas received 14,282 votes — 52.17 percent — in the mayoral race to edge out her opponent Jerry Rindone, who won the support of 13,095 voters or 47.83 percent.
Salas said she couldn’t have made history without her supporters, volunteers and staff.
“It’s all about getting a team South County-wide that we can change and make this community very, very different than it is today,” Salas told a crowd of about 160 people at a party in Chula Vista.
Salas will be joined at City Hall by former Sweetwater Union High School District trustee John McCann and re-elected Councilwoman Pat Aguilar.
In a hotly contested race for council seat one — which is an open seat with Councilman Rudy Ramirez termed out — McCann defeated rival and former mayor Steve Padilla.
As of Thursday morning, McCann had garnered 13,794 votes while Padilla received 13,002.
There remain more than 100,000 provisional ballots to be tallied countywide, but the outgoing Sweetwater Union High School board member does not expect the final result to change.
“I’m just very thankful for my Chula Vista neighbors electing me,” McCann said. “And after their support, after my almost fatal accident, this is a way I could give back to the thousands of people that supported me in my recovery,” he said.
This will be McCann’s second go-round on the City Council.
City Council seat two incumbent Pat Aguilar was the highest vote getter in the Chula Vista races, securing 14,748 votes or 56.57 percent.
Aguilar said she is excited to bring change to Chula Vista with Salas as the new mayor.
“We’re going to have a government in Chula Vista that responds to the people, that responds to the community, that responds to the neighborhoods. Something we haven’t had on the City Council in a long, long time, and we’re going to have it again,” she told the same 160 people.
The city of Chula Vista will move to district elections in 2016.
In National City, Mayor Ron Morrison was elected to four more years, and his last term, by defeating his opponent Councilman Luis Natividad. He earned 3,278 of the 4,515 votes cast Tuesday.
“I think it was basically an overwhelming show of support in the direction the city is going,” Morrison said about his reelection.
Natividad not only lost against Morrison but he also lost his seat on the City Council, as he did not seek reelection.
In the race for City Council in National City, incumbent Mona Rios won reelection and newcomer Albert Mendivil will replace Natividad on the dais.
