Ledger-Dispatch

By Raheem Hosseini (editor@ledger-dispatch.com= )=20

Ione City Council candidate David Plank = casts one=20 of many votes for himself in front of 48-year veteran elections = inspector=20 Carolyn Fisher.

Photo by: Jerry = Budrick

Mayor Andrea Bonham casts her ballot = under the=20 watchful eye of elections inspector Carolyn Fisher, veteran of 42 = years of=20 guarding against voter fraud.

Photo by: Jerry=20 Budrick
With nearly 83 percent of = registered voters=20 turning out to the polls in Amador County, several local government = bodies could=20 see wholesale changes by early next year.

Unofficial tallies = showed=20 incumbents in danger of losing three of four seats on the Amador Water = Agency=20 Board of Directors, while the Jackson City Council and the Amador County = Unified=20 School District each saw the defeat of one incumbent.

By = Wednesday=20 morning, the Plymouth City Council race was still too close to call for = one of=20 the three available seats. Incumbents Jon Colburn and Patricia = Shackleton were=20 leading with safe margins of victory, but businesswoman Maria Nunez was=20 separated from incumbent Greg Baldwin by a mere two votes, with dozens = of=20 provisional ballots still to be counted. Nunez said the final call on = who gets=20 Plymouth's third seat could take up to two weeks.

In Jackson, = unofficial=20 tallies had appointed incumbent Wayne Garibaldi returning for his first = full=20 term. He received slightly more than a quarter of the nearly 4,700 votes = tallied=20 in that race. Things got decidedly tougher to call from there. Former = Councilman=20 Keith Sweet appeared safe with 17 percent of the vote, but incumbent Al = Nunes=20 was trailing former Councilwoman Marilyn Lewis by just six votes, = equating to=20 less than a percentage point separating the two former colleagues. As in = Plymouth, provisional ballots could make the difference.

Ione = gave city=20 Planning Commissioner David Plank former Mayor Jerry Sherman's seat, = while=20 current Mayor Andrea Bonham easily retained hers.

Another former = Ione=20 mayor, Gary Thomas, may be one of three candidates for Amador Water = Agency to=20 take a seat from an incumbent. He was beating current District 2 = Director John=20 Swift by 86 votes Thursday morning.

It was less of a contest in = District=20 1, where Bill Condrashoff edged appointed incumbent Madonna Wiebold by = 567=20 votes.

In a battle between two first-time candidates, Don Cooper = won in a=20 landslide in District 3, securing nearly 70 percent of the 2,888 votes = cast to=20 trounce Joe Bonini.

A three-way race in District 4 had Upcountry = activist=20 and Ledger Dispatch contributor Debbie Dunn safely ahead of appointed = incumbent=20 Paul Scott and Sutter Creek Councilman Brent Parsons, both of whom live = on the=20 same street.

"I am honored to be the first woman ever elected to = sit on=20 this board of directors," Dunn said via e-mail. "It speaks volumes on = the=20 direction Amador County is taking."

If water is the most = important issue=20 in Amador County, another big topic has been fire protection. On = Tuesday, two=20 years after a similar ballot measure failed, county voters gave Measure = M the=20 required two-thirds it needs to implement a half-cent sales tax for paid = fire=20 protection in the all-volunteer county.

On the school board, P.J. = Karnaze=20 lost his seat, while incumbent Mary Walser will be joined by first-time = trustees=20 Janelle Redkey and Wally Upper.

Raheem = Hosseini