News - Local - North Coast

Wednesday, Jun. 04, 2008

Finalists emerge in races for Morro mayor, council

Leage and incumbent Peters will battle for mayor in the fall; four candidates from large, diverse pool to be in council runoff

Comments (0) |

The fall campaigns for Morro Bay mayor and City Council took shape in the city’s first-ever June primary.

The top two mayoral and top four City Council candidates will compete in the general election in November.

Mayoral candidate George Leage will challenge incumbent Janice Peters. Leage, a businessman in Morro Bay for more than 40 years, received about 36 percent of the vote. Leage champions a stronger business community to strengthen the city’s economy.

“I’m gonna win this thing,” Leage said Tuesday night. “The voters want this town to be changed, they want something different and they want some revenue in this town.”

Peters, who has been mayor since 2004, received about 30 percent of the ballots cast.

“I’ve always been here at the will of the people,” Peters said. “And as long as they want me to continue, I’m willing to keep doing the work.”

Peters said she has already made an effort to attract new businesses by working with the city’s Chamber of Commerce on new festivals and events.

Council candidates Carla Borchard, Noah Smukler, Bill Peirce and Roger Ewing will compete Nov. 4 for two seats. Borchard received almost 23 percent of votes while Smukler received about 20 percent. Peirce won about 16 percent of the votes; Ewing received almost 14 percent.

The city’s primary attracted a record number of candidates with various levels of professional and political experience. Each offered different ideas on how to stimulate growth and capitalize on tourism.

The races focused on how to revive an economy hurt by the decline of the local fishing industry. Key issues include boosting tourism and the merits of attracting new businesses that cater to residents and tourists.

Other mayoral candidates included Councilwoman Melody DeMeritt and businesswoman R. Pepper Hughes.

Candidates competing for council seats were business owner Mick Theis, high school teacher Andrew Wilkie, businessman Jack Barrett and Joey Racano, a musician, writer and artist.

In order to avoid a runoff, candidates would have had win more than 50 percent of the votes cast. No candidates approached that level Tuesday.

An undetermined number of absentee ballots remained to be counted. County elections officials said they expected to count them today.