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BERKELEY -- With most of the votes counted, it looks like Berkeley City Council member Kriss Worthington will keep his job. Updated Nov. 6, 1:32 am
Worthington was leading UC Berkeley sophomore, Micki Weinberg, by more than 20 percent, with nine out 10 precincts reported.
"I will win comfortably," Worthington predicted a few hours before the polls closed, saying he would celebrate in mayoral candidate Tom Bates's Shattuck Avenue headquarters. Worthington said he hoped to see Mayoral candidate Tom Bates -- and himself -- as winners today.
Worthington and his aides spent the day doing last minute campaigning. The candidate himself drove four voters to the polls to make sure they cast their ballots.
"Everyone kept saying, 'I voted for you, I voted for you,'" said Worthington.
Although Weinberg received the backing of incumbent Mayor Shirley Dean, the veteran Worthington remained confident as the votes were coming in. "Just because there's a student candidate, Shirley Dean's attempt to confuse the electorate after 20 years of neglecting student issues will not work out," Worthington said.
With 85 percent of the precincts reported, Dean is trailing in her own race against Tom Bates for re-election. Worthington has vowed to help maintain the progressive majority over the moderates on the council. If Bates becomes Mayor, that majority is likely to be more comfortable than in the past four years.
Although Weinberg calls himself an "independent progressive," he received support and campaign contributions from Mayor Dean -- who is often at odds with Worthington -- and council members Betty Olds, Polly Armstrong, and Miriam Hawley.
Weinberg, a religious studies major and commissioner of the city's Peace and Justice committee, said his main goal was to have more student representation on the council. Half of District 7 is made up of UC students, he said, while nearly one-third of the city's population is students.
If elected, the Los Angeles native said one of his top priorities would have been to form a student commission, giving the council input on issues such as housing, safety, and transportation. During his campaign, he said he planned on fighting for more affordable housing, crime prevention programs and local funding for AC transit.
In campaign literature distributed to potential voters, Weinberg claimed his opponent "has betrayed students" by voting against or abstaining from voting on $75 million in new housing development, which would have provided "350 badly needed apartments." In the literature, he also argued that Worthington cast the deciding vote against a redistricting plan proposed by UC Berkeley's student government, the Associated Students of the University of California, which prevented a "strong student district."
During the campaign, Worthington said the student government had never approved the redistricting plan, and that the city attorney deemed the plan illegal before he decided to vote against it. He also emphatically denied under-serving students, and has pointed to student appointments he has made to city commissions as an example of his support for students. One of those appointments includes Andy Katz, a UC Berkeley graduate student and District 8 city council candidate, who Worthington appointed to the Zoning and Adjustments Board.
During a recent candidate forum, Worthington acknowledged the need for more housing and said he led the fight to get $1million for affordable housing. In campaign literature, the incumbent is described as a "passionate advocate for student issues."
Worthington's agenda involves working to get more housing near campus, fight fee hikes, enact stronger protections for tenants and make Berkeley streets more bicycle-friendly and pedestrian-safe.