BERKELEY – Igor Tregub, considered one of 4 candidates for Berkeley's 4th District City Council seat, declared his winner Tuesday night after an updated vote count confirmed his lead within the race.
As of three:36 p.m. Tuesday, Tregub, political director at Reimagine Power, was leading with 51.18 percent of the vote in a race decided by ranked-choice voting. In second place is Rubén Hernández Story, chief of staff to 2nd District Councilman Terry Taplin, with 42.82 percent of the vote. Rent Board Commissioner Soli Alpert and community volunteer Elana Auerbach were eliminated in earlier rounds of vote counting.
“Thank you to every single person who voted for me and donated and volunteered for my campaign. This great victory was only possible with the help of hundreds of grassroots supporters who know my life's work and values,” Tregub said on social media.
Tregub will replace former City Councilwoman Kate Harrison as representative of the Fourth District, which encompasses downtown and central Berkeley and has a current total of seven,453 people registered to vote, in response to the county elections office. Harrison resigned earlier this 12 months, citing problems with city bureaucracy, but is currently still running for mayor. Her resignation got here shortly after Rigel Robinson resigned and suspended his mayoral campaign. Last month, recent UC Berkeley graduate Cecilia Lunaparra won a special election to switch Robinson.
After being sworn in, Tregub said his priorities can be to expand tenant protections, spend money on reasonably priced housing, create a secure and vibrant city center, support town's homeless, improve multimodal transportation and advocate for climate policy.
“When I move to City Council, I want everyone in D4 to know they will have a responsive representative focused on solving our district's problems and healing the divisions in our city,” Tregub said. “Elections come and go; community is what we build in between.”
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