Candidate for Council Loses Lead in Final Tally : Fillmore: Evaristo Barajas is defeated by incumbent Don Gunderson in count of absentee votes. He would have been the first Latino elected in 10 years.

Real estate agent Evaristo Barajas apparently has lost his bid to become the first Latino member of the Fillmore City Council in 10 years after failing to maintain his lead among absentee voters, county elections officials said Monday.

Barajas, who has lived in the predominantly Latino city of 12,000 for more than three decades, lost his lead to incumbent Don Gunderson by 34 votes when the absentee ballots were counted.

However, a handful of provisional ballots--those whose eligibility is under review--still must be counted before the results are sent to individual cities next week, an election official said Monday.

Officials would not say Monday if there are enough provisional ballots out to affect the outcome.

After initial election returns were counted Nov. 8, Barajas was 18 votes ahead of Gunderson, a retired Navy captain who now works as an engineer and is serving his first term.

But Gunderson said Monday that he was not surprised by the turnaround, because he received so much positive feedback as he campaigned during the final days before the election.

“I had talked with an awful lot of people who had put in absentee ballots, and from walking out there and knocking on doors, a lot of people indicated they’d already voted and they’d already voted for me,” Gunderson said.

“I had my fingers crossed when they started counting the absentees,” he said.

Barajas, who tallied 1,411 votes to Gunderson’s 1,445, would have been the first Latino council member since longtime Councilman Ernest J. Morales chose not to seek reelection 10 years ago.

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Almost 60% of the city is of Hispanic origin, according to the 1990 U.S. Census.

Barajas could not be reached for comment Monday. But past and current members of the City Council and community leaders praised both candidates.

“We knew it was going to be a close one,” said Morales, who served 16 years on the council. “We really had high hopes about him possibly replacing one of the two incumbents.”

Morales challenged Latinos in Fillmore to organize further to get a Latino elected to the council.

“Just looking at the numbers, I should think there should be at least one, even two,” he said. “But I don’t think it’s going to happen until the Latino community really gets their act together and gets active.”

Barajas “did extremely well for his first time out,” said Hank Carrillo, executive director of the Fillmore Chamber of Commerce. “He did better than some people expected, but he didn’t have the name recognition that Don did.

“Don’s done a great job, and Evaristo would have too,” Carrillo said. “We’re lucky we had people of that caliber running. I hope he considers running again.”

Mayor Linda Brewster, who easily won reelection with more than 1,900 votes, said she wishes there was room on the council for both Gunderson and Barajas.

“That was quite a thing for a challenger to unseat an incumbent because there was no controversial issue that was angering the community,” Brewster said. “It’s a loss for Fillmore not to have Evaristo, but that would mean that Don wouldn’t have gotten in.”

The mayor said she would invite Barajas to apply for positions on some city advisory committees. “There are a lot of ways for citizens to get involved in the community,” she said.

City Clerk Noreen Withers said many members of the Latino community have not chosen to participate in local government.

“People wonder why in a town that has as many Hispanics as Fillmore there haven’t been more Latino council members,” Withers said. “But for them to be elected, they have to run. For some reason in recent years, there just haven’t been the candidates.”

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The absentee count conducted since Nov. 8 by Ventura County election officials yielded one other change among local races: incumbent Trustee Robert Villa of the Santa Paula Union School District was beaten for the third seat by Terry Nelson.

Nelson trailed Villa by 66 votes on Election Day but made up enough ballots from absentee votes to jump to third place by 34 votes.