The challenger to incumbent John Linn won the election to become Lompoc’s new mayor with a margin of more than a 1,000 votes.
It was quiet at the Trinity Church of the Nazarene polling location on D Street, where the last votes trickled in the night of Nov. 4. The final ballot was cast at 7:59 p.m. Soon after the polls closed a minute later, absentee ballots were being counted, and Lingl immediately jumped into the lead with at least 61 percent of the vote. By the time counters finished tallying ballots late into the night, Lingl had received a total of 3,400 votes, compared to Linn’s 2,344.
At Linn’s home on Gardenia Street, where an election party was underway with family and some close friends, the feeling was relaxed.
After serving as Lompoc’s mayor for the last four years, Linn seemed almost relieved to begin the next phase of his career: “I might actually get my life back,” he said.
Lingl was no doubt pleased with the results, but expected it to be a closer race.
Linn partially attributes his loss to what he called a negative, albeit smart and professional campaign run by Lingl.
However, Lingl said he was merely bringing up mayoral deficiencies. He explained that although he and Linn shared similar goals for the city—improving the economy, bringing in more jobs, and increasing public safety—he thinks his style differentiated him from his opponent.
“John and I have very similar substances to what we do,” Lingl said. “But his style was very intimidating, micromanaging, and, in some cases, disrespectful.”
Among Lingl’s first items of business is to meet with the out-going mayor and city administrator to come up with a succession plan, as well as seek a replacement for his City Council seat.
Both Linn and Lingl, however, were a bit displeased with voter turnout, which was less than 50 percent.
“I thought the attention to Measure P have had a higher turnout,” Lingl said.
In the City Council race, incumbent Dirk Starbuck won re-election with 26 percent (2,719 votes). Candidate Victor Vega became a new councilmember with 19 percent (1,986 votes).
This article appears in Nov 6-13, 2014.