Green wins council seat

Councilwoman Cathy Green held on to her lead in early election results to finish first in the City Council election race with 18.4% votes, according to the Orange County Registrar of Voters.

Incumbent Jill Hardy also won her re-election bid with 21,784 votes, or 16.9%, following Green closely.

“Phew, I can breathe a sigh of relief,” said Hardy at a quiet election party at council candidate Flossie Horgan’s home. “I had been worried.”

“At least I didn’t embarrass myself,” she said with a laugh.

Joe “Jersey Joe” Carchio also won a council seat in his second attempt with 14.6% of votes, 118 votes fewer than Councilman Gil Coerper snagged.

Four of the seven council seats were up for election.

Horgan, a popular figure in Huntington Beach who ran an organized campaign, trailed in fifth place.

Although she started her campaigning early on in the race, Horgan lost out to Carchio by about 600 votes. Horgan had been very confident she would be one of the winners.

“The voters have spoken,” she said, and congratulated the winners. In spite of the surprise loss, Horgan said she would not have “changed one thing about our campaign.”

“Our campaign was creative, organized, well strategized, well executed — it was perfect,” she said.

Horgan’s supporters had been hoping the results might change through the evening. In 2002, Councilwoman Debbie Cook was able to leapfrog over two candidates in spite of trailing them and win a council seat.

The first election results to come in showed Horgan with 13.5% votes, increasing slightly to 14.1%.

Local businessman Joe Shaw, in his first foray into politics, came in at 12.5%. Among seven council candidates, he contributed by far the most money to his own race — about $27,000.