Local election curiosities

 
What's interesting about the 2018 General  Election locally is the closeness of one federal, one state and one city election. In the 10th congressional district, Republican Jeff Denham and Democrat Josh Harder are running neck and neck. Also too close to call is the race for the 12th state Senate District, which pits Democrat Anna Caballero of Salinas against Ron Poythress of Madress. And in the new Merced City Council 6th District,  Delray Shelton and John Bliss are just about tied with "thousands of mail-in and other ballots" left to count by the Merced County Elections Department.
On an errant note, Merced City Mayor, the pompous Republican attorney Mike Murphy, received 6,862 votes in his race against Merced's most vocal homeless advocate and long-time homeless person, Monica Kay Villa, who received 2,651 votes. Considering the difficulties most of Monica's core constituency have establishing even temporary physical addresses given police sweeps and other lifestyle vicissitudes, we think this vote represents dissatisfaction with Murphy by hundreds of residents with permanent home addresses.