In the race for the two open seats on Turlock City Council, challenger Matthew Jacob won 4,892 votes, for a total of 29.51 percent, taking one open seat followed by incumbent Bill DeHart who won 4,341 votes for a total of 26.18 percent, taking the other open seat.

DeHart, 66, has served as a councilmember for the past four years, was a Commissioned Officer in the United States Marine Corps for over 20 years and has been a part of
church leadership, active in youth work.

“Going to be nice to have a new environment, new flavor,” said DeHart. “I trust we can hold on and work together and not beat each other up.”

DeHart was pleased with his campaign, even though the Council race turned a little negative in the last few days.

“I feel good about the campaign, it started to break down a little towards the end,” said DeHart. “It’s important we treat each other with dignity and integrity. Our community deserves that.”

DeHart’s main goals in his second term include focus on public safety, a balanced budget and active participation to address regional water, transportation, local business, economic development and quality of life issues.

He was endorsed by the Turlock Action for Business Turlock Chamber of Commerce PAC, Turlock Firefighters Local #2434, Turlock Associated Police Officers, the Republican Party of Stanislaus County and Latino Community Roundtable of Stanislaus County.

As of the last campaign finance filing period before the election, DeHart had a yearly total of $5,450.00 in contributions.

Jacob, 22, helps run Bianca’s Bridal Couture in Modesto with his family and is a Stanislaus County Commissioner. He has studied at University of California, Berkeley, Stanford University and Peking University in Beijing, China.

In a statement made on his Facebook page regarding his election, Jacob thanked his family and volunteers that contributed to his campaign.

“It is a new day in Turlock. I am deeply grateful for this opportunity to serve my community,” said Jacob.

He has campaigned on the issues public safety, providing adequate resources to attract and retain qualified personnel and by restoring personnel cuts; economic development, through working to make Turlock a more attractive city; and quality of life issues, like addressing issues of homelessness.

“Together, I believe we can effectively collaborate on tackling Turlock’s many challenges with even tougher solutions,” said Jacob, congratulating the other local winners stating his hope of working toward solutions with the rest of the Council.

Jacob’s key endorsements throughout his campaign were, the Turlock Associated Police Officers, Bob Endsley, Lazar Piro, Dr. Raymond George and Dr. Daryl Bailie.

He reported a yearly total of $15,082.40 in campaign contributions as of the last campaign financing filing period prior to the election.

Incumbent Forrest White, 67, retired CEO of the San Joaquin County Fair, served on City Council for the past four years and came in a close third place — with just under 350 votes separating he and DeHart.

Challengers Donald Babadalir and Sergio Alvarado each received more than 1,500 votes.