Reprint from the Progress Times - October 26, 2007
©Progress Times 2007 - All Rights Reserved

Ruben Plata wins city council seat

 

The vote is in and Ruben Plata has won his first bid for elected office. Plata defeated former City Councilman Armando O’cana in the October 20 election for Mission City Council, Place 2.
This election was the second setback for Ocana and his supporters. He ran for mayor of Mission last May, losing his bid to unseat Mayor Norberto "Beto" Salinas. In that election, O’cana garnered 2,045 votes to Salinas’ 2,615 votes. In all, 4,660 votes were cast in the mayor’s race.
This time, the results were similar. In May, O’cana received 44 percent of the vote. This time, he got 44 percent of the vote again. But in this special election the voter turnout was much smaller, as was expected. Only 1,914 total votes were cast, according to the unofficial count. Plata received 1,077 votes and O’cana only 837. Plata won by 240 votes.
Plata’s campaign did extremely well in the early voting period, garnering 686 votes compared to Ocana’s 383 votes, for a difference of 303.
While these results are unofficial, only a handful of provisional ballots are pending, according to Mission City Secretary Anna Carrillo. Not enough to affect the results of the election. Canvassing of the vote was set to occur Thursday evening after press time.
The Mission special election was held to replace City Councilwoman Gen Long, who resigned earlier this year due to family health problems.

October 20 Mission

City Council Election

(Unofficial Tally)
Candidate
Early

Vote
Paper Ballots
Election Day
Total Votes
Ruben Plata
686
106
285
1,077
Armando O’cana
383
54
400
837
Total
1,069
160
685
1,914