Of the four city council district seats in Chico up for election, two of those could be filled with new progressives councilors.
Bryce Goldstein’s campaign against incumbent council member Deepika Tandon in District 7 seems to have been successful. Preliminary results show Goldstein with about 60% of votes.
Similarly, District 5’s Katie Hawley has taken more than 73% of the vote, according to preliminary unofficial results.
This could mean two more progressives to join Addison Winslow, who is currently the council’s lone progressive voice.
“It is a lot less of a burden on me, in a way,” Winslow said. “While in another way, I feel like there is this enormous weight upon us, all, progressives and people who support democracy and society, to be elevating the level of our political involvement.”
Other early city council race results show that District 1’s candidate Mike O’Brien and District 3’s incumbent Dale Bennett are both ahead of their opponents.
Once the new council is seated, Winslow said he wants to prioritize growth in Chico’s urban core.
“With myself, Katie and Bryce, we only need one more vote in order to pass any sort of reforms. And in particular, I look to my colleague Tom Van Overbeek, that may be an ally on some of these things to promote good urbanism in Chico,” Winslow said.
Winslow said he feels the current council has been more focused on development on the edges of town.
“You know, with the conservatives, the priority in pulling government funding grants is to widen roads on the outside of town,” Winslow said. “While the progressives are pretty adamant that we want to support the core infrastructure, like elevating the level of safety and quality of infrastructure.”
Winslow also said he is currently the only renter on the council, but Goldstein and Hawley would bring that number to three. “To be a progressive means to support renters rights and this is something that we're going to have some struggles over.”
A recent study from Harvard University found that about 60% of renters in Chico spend more than a third of their income on rent and utilities, making them the second highest cost-burdened city in the state.
Winslow hopes that having two additional progressive voices will help forward issues that support working class Chico residents, but it remains to be seen if progressives will secure a fourth vote needed for a majority. Currently, the two other progressive candidates are trailing their opponents in the unofficial election results.
“Whether there's any chance that we can pull over another vote in order to institute some reforms,” Winslow concluded, “We'll have to see.”
Editor’s Note: Votes are still being counted in Butte County. Election results are not official until they are certified by officials. We will continue to update election results on our website until Dec. 5, which is the deadline for county election officials to certify the results.
