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Emilio Martinez, Luis Alejo claim victory on Watsonville City Council

WATSONVILLE - Watsonville voters looked for change Tuesday, ousting Councilman Edward Din and giving the District 6 seat to Emilio Martinez.

District 1 challenger Gabriel Gonzalez was 21 votes ahead of incumbent Manuel Bersamin with an unknown number of absentee and provisional ballots to count. It was unknown early Wednesday how many District 1 voters cast ballots, but there are 910 registered voters and 445 ballots have been counted.

Lawyer Luis Alejo widened an early lead to trounce retired carpenter Joe Ortiz more than three votes to one in the contest to replace outgoing Councilman Oscar Rios.

"I'm elated," said Martinez after the final results were posted about 1 a.m. Wednesday. "I'm going to do my best to represent the district."

The election turned on growth, particularly on Atkinson Lane near the Brewington Avenue and Martinelli Street neighborhoods and around the Watsonville Municipal Airport.

If Gonzalez keeps the lead - he declined to claim victory early Wednesday, saying he'd wait until all absentee ballots were counted - he'll help form a new council majority concerned about the pace and type of development called for in the city's growth plan for the next two decades.

Bersamin was a strong supporter of the plan, angering pilots who poured thousands of dollars into Gonzalez's campaign.

"I'm very optimistic," Gonzalez said of his chances after the early returns came in. "Whatever the result, we'll live with it, but things are looking very good. We had an abundant amount of voters go out today."

Martinez, who opposes rezoning property just outside city limits on Atkinson Lane for low-income housing, faulted Din for agreeing to work with Santa Cruz County to plan for the area. Din came out against the plan after initial studies, but was unable to persuade a majority on the council to abandon the effort.

Martinez said he campaigned hard, using a strategy developed with his daughter, Morgan, who works for state Sen. Abel Maldonado. He and wife Kathleen Morgan-Martinez walked precincts seven days a week for four weeks, he said, concentrating on the heavily Latino neighborhoods near Marin Street, where he thought support for Obama might draw people to the polls.

"I feel like I'm indebted to those Latino voters," he said.

Alejo, who won nearly 80 percent of the District 2 vote, also ran a vigorous campaign. He said as he knocked on doors, he ran into a lot of people who knew him from his days as a legal aide attorney.

"My years of community service really helped a lot," Alejo said. "They wanted someone who's going to be an effective voice for this district."

Contact Donna Jones at 763-4505 or djones@santacruzsentinel.com.