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Rialto Councilman Joe Baca Jr and Fontana Councilman Jesse Armendarez have finished in the top two spots in the Election to replace termed out Supervisor Josie Gonzalez. In the presidential primary election on March 3, Baca Jr. received 12,442 votes (39.38 percent of the total) and Armendarez gained 8,624 votes (27.30 percent), according to final unofficial results released by the San Bernardino County Registrar of Voters Office.

This election had four people running for the newly open seat. Business Owner Nadia Renner & Colton School Board Member Dan Flores both finished at the bottom of the race. Since nobody obtained more than 50% of the total vote the top two vote getters will be in a runoff in the November Presidential Election. One interesting portion of this race was how people decided how and when to enter the race.

Dan Flores more than just a School Board Member for the Colton Joint School District he was Supervisor Josie Gonzalez Chief of Staff. Dan Flores was seen as the heir to the throne when it came to the 5th Supervisors Seat. Dan spent the longest building his campaign and seemed to have support from many areas across the district, that was until the filling period loomed in the distance. Councilman Joe Baca Jr has been seeking an exit to teaching and being a Council Member on the Rialto City Council and it seems he found his out. Even though Rialto seems to be booming with economic activity, there are a lot of looming issues that the current council has been ignoring or kicking down the road. Councilman Jesse Armendez is an entirely different situation because he only got into local politics to be a paid puppet for Fontana Mayor Aquenetta Warren. Fontana Mayor Warren has spent the last six years buying elections and putting people on boards so she can feed contracts to her donors and control elected bodies.

Most people we spoke to thought both Councilmen were grasping at straws entering this race. Joe Baca Sr has done much damage to the Baca dynasty name and Joe Baca Jr seems like a vanilla local elected official looking for new power and a bigger paycheck. Jesse Armendarez looked even worse, with very little elected experience and little to no name recognition outside of the Fontana political structure. Yet both Councilmen used some divisive tactics to overcome the other two running for Supervisor to. Joe Baca Jr used his ability to fund raise from local and regional Democrats as well as using his name recognition to overcome his opponents. Jesse Armendez tactics were business as usual for an Aquentta Warren Campaign. Using the force behind the Inland Empire Business Alliance coupled with some lies in the campaign Jesse finished in the top two.

Jesse Armendez worked to lure in Democrats that were undecided between the two Democrats in the race coupled with his lack of name recognition by putting out different mailers. If you were registered Democrat you got a flyer that said Jesse was a Democrat, Republicans got a mailer labeling him as a Republican. Jesse’s PAC’s also spent money sending out lies in mailers that Dan Flores a long time Democrat was a Trump Republican. Donald Trump should make sure he creates space between himself and Mayor Warren since she seems quick to use Trump hate to derail campaigns. This Campaign came down to Moderate Democrats vrs Progressive Democrats. Political power houses like Congress Woman Norma Torres and Congress Man Pete Aguilar supported Dan Flores.