Lisa Kaplan leads in Sacramento City Council election; closer margins in 2 other races
Lisa Kaplan is well on her way to being elected to the Sacramento City Council.
Kaplan, a longtime member of the Natomas Unified School Board, is leading with 62% of the vote in early returns Tuesday against Realtor Alyssa Lozano. They’re competing to represent North Natomas on the City Council.
Two other council races have closer margins.
Karina Talamantes is leading Michael Lynch with 53.5% to represent District 3, which includes South Natomas.
In District 5, which includes Oak Park and parts of south Sacramento, Caity Maple is leading Tamiko Heim with 53.6% of the vote.
Three of Sacramento’s eight City Council seats are up for grabs in this election, partly due to the city’s once-a-decade redistricting process. Councilman Jeff Harris could not seek reelection because of the way his district boundaries changed.
Councilwoman Angelique Ashby ran for state Senate, and Councilman Jay Schenirer retired, leaving their seats open.
Council races are often determined in the primary, but this year, all three contests were competitive.
Kaplan, 47 and an attorney, was closest to a primary win — just shy of the 50.01% of the vote she would have needed to win outright.
During a recent debate, Kaplan said her experience on the school board prepared her for the role of councilwoman. Kaplan received campaign donations from the city police and fire unions, in addition to business groups and developers. Mayor Darrell Steinberg has also donated to her campaign. Council members Rick Jennings, Eric Guerra, Katie Valenzuela, Jeff Harris and Mai Vang endorsed her.
District 3
Talamantes, Ashby’s chief of staff and a Sacramento County Board of Education member, is seen as a more liberal candidate than Lynch, director of a youth nonprofit.
The race has been contentious since the spring. Talamantes, who was endorsed by the Democratic Party of Sacramento County, accused Lynch of lying on a mailer claiming he was “the Democratic choice.” Talamantes sent mailers to voters criticizing Lynch for accepting donations from the California Apartment Association, which has lobbied against rent control measures.
Talamantes received money from the police and fire unions. She was also endorsed by Valenzuela, a self-proclaimed democratic socialist and the council’s most liberal member. Steinberg and council members Vang and Sean Loloee also supported Talamantes.
Lynch, the director of the nonprofit Improve Your Tomorrow, which helps underserved youth get to college, was supported by developers and real estate groups.
District 5
Maple, 31, began campaigning for the seat back in 2020. Heim jumped in to run in early 2022.
Despite the shorter campaign time, Heim became a serious competitor partly because she received large donations from the city police and firefighter unions, real estate and developers — the groups Maple has said she would not accept money from. Heim has said she accepted the money because campaigns are expensive, but she will not always vote the way those groups want.
In addition, The California Association of Realtors independent expenditure committee has spent $105,000 on mailers and ads against Maple, who supported a city rent control initiative in 2020. There were no negative mailers about Heim.
Maple, a consultant and homeless activist, is the more liberal candidate of the two, but stops short of calling herself a democratic socialist. She’s received donations from many labor groups, including the Sacramento Central Labor Council and SEIU Local 1000. She was also supported by Ashby, Valenzuela, Talamantes and the Democratic Party of Sacramento.
Heim, 43, a state worker and Active Transportation Commission member, has received donations from the California Apartment Association, the California Association of Realtors, the Sacramento Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce, Mark Friedman, Sotiris Kolokotronis and CFY Development. She’s supported by Steinberg, Schenirer, Harris and Jennings, whose face appeared on mailers.
This story was originally published November 8, 2022 at 8:21 PM.
