Arnold and Peschong to continue as district representatives on County Board of Supervisors

As of Tuesday, the County of San Luis Obispo still had more than 4,000 votes left to count overall, but by-district votes were counted to a point of conclusion on local races, and bode well for the incumbents in all cases.

Debbie Arnold, John Peschong, and Adam Hill all stood to retain their seats on the County Board of Supervisors, representing the fifth, first, and third districts, respectively.

From the first count of polling on March 3, Peschong held a commanding lead over challenger Stephanie Shakofsky that led to a foregone conclusion about the result of District 1 — which represents Paso Robles and part of Templeton.

On March 3, after the first day of counting, Arnold held a lead of almost 2,000 votes over challenger Ellen Beraud, and after six days of counting since, Beraud closed the gap to 1,442 with only 1,427 votes left to count — all but ensuring a victory for incumbent Arnold.

The 5th District race was the focus of an attack campaign against Beraud that claimed she voted against Atascadero’s Veteran’s Memorial, Faces of Freedom, when she was a member of the Atascadero City Council.

Beraud rebuffed the claims, subsequently showing support for and from veterans, and earned support from a member of the Atascadero Art Review Committee, Stephen LaSalle, who wrote that the committee recommended “the art work be opened for wider competition and perhaps resulting in a better piece,” and that he considered Beraud’s vote a support for his recommendation at the time.

As of Tuesday afternoon, Beraud trailed Arnold on election day polling, 2,178-2,071 and vote-by-mail 8,569-7,234, to bring some closure to a tight and hotly campaigned local race.

Arnold took a moment during a break from the Tuesday Board of Supervisors meeting to contact The Atascadero News.

“I appreciate the voters’ confidence me,” Arnold said, “and I will continue to do what I have done in the past and represent them all and base my decisions on what I think is in the best interest of all our constituents.”

Topics that were hot during the campaign are on deck for the coming term and will continue to be targets of concern.

“We spent time [today] working on the affordable housing issue and we will continue to work on the water issue, homeless and cannabis issues, which will go on for a very long time,” Arnold said before heading back into the meeting.

Also a target of campaign attack ads, Hill began election day polling about 300 votes behind in the 1st District race against challenger Stacy A. Korsgaden, but has taken a 528-vote lead over Korsgaden with only 616 votes left to tally.

School bond initiative PROP 13 (not to be confused with the 1978 PROP 13), was soundly defeated, with a count of 45,730-24,419 as of Tuesday afternoon.

For additional coverage and up-to-date information on the conclusion of the March 3 election and upcoming Presidential election, follow atascaderonews.com and pasoroblespress.com.