Say what you want about the current Manteca mayor’s race, but you can’t say there aren’t distinct choices.

It is something to keep in mind as you start marking your ballot in the coming weeks unless, of course, you have already voted.

For starters, races for mayor with more than two candidates  are a rarity in Manteca since the direct election of mayor started in 1978

That in itself makes the 2022 election a tad dicey.

It is also why every vote is likely to matter.

Three candidates means there is a good chance the next mayor will not have the majority support of those that cast ballots.

Ben Cantu in the 2018 election collected 52.2 percent of the votes. His 12,042 votes topped incumbent Steve DeBrum who amassed  10,988 votes. That was a clear majority of those voting.

The only other race for mayor with more than two candidates was in 2010.

It was the last and only time a Manteca mayor was elected without securing a clear majority of the votes cast.

Incumbent Mayor Willie Weatherford was re-elected with 42.78 percent (6,683 votes) of the vote. The other finishers in descending order were Cantu 21.28 percent (3,325 votes), Carlon Perry 18.24 percent (2,850 votes), and Debby Moorhead 17.32 percent (2,706 votes).

The closest election ever was the 1994 race where Carlon Perry lost to Bill Perry by a mere 47 votes.

Even though it was razor thin, it brings up an interesting point.

The 1994 election despite a razor thin margin still had a winner with the majority of the votes cast.

The odds are that won’t happen this time around.

As such, it could become a foundational argument to alter Manteca’s future elections so that a mayor — and not necessarily the four council seats — requires a primary race to select two candidates to square off in a November runoff.

If there are only two candidates in the mayor’s primary that could be combined with the statewide June primary, then whoever wins that race would be elected mayor outright in June but wouldn’t be seated until December.

That’s much like what happened this election cycle with Ron Freitas beating incumbent Tori Verber Salazar in June. She is still in office until December when Freitas takes over.
The case for a primary for mayor and not for the district council seats can be made as well as a primary for all five seats including the mayor.

The reason why a primary election for mayor is simple.

Manteca no longer elects all of its council members at large. That means the only seat that all Mantecans eligible to vote can weigh in on is the mayor’s post. And that happens only every four years and not every two years as in Lathrop.

Lathrop’s system, to be honest, isn’t optimum. It seems to work well for Lathrop but a time will come when it might not fit so well.

While it eliminates the issue of incumbent council members running midway through a four year for mayor and leaving a vacant seat if they win, it also means someone who is mayor would literally be just in office for a year before they have to start running for re-election.

If a council member half way through their term is elected mayor as could happen this year in Manteca, then there needs to be a special election or the council appoints someone.

Almost every time the council elects to appoint someone citing the cost of a special election. But it also means four elected officials and not voters will decide who fills the seat. And that could be especially grating in situations where voters will have only two chances to elect people to the council — once in a districtwide race and the other in the citywide mayor’s race.

Prior to districtwide council elections, if a person was appointed to the council the other four members were elected citywide. Now instead of being able to help determine five members of a five-member council, no one can determine more than two members.

It makes appointing replacements, especially when it is for a vacancy created by a council member halfway through a four-year term winning  the mayor’s post an action, that dilute the influence votes cast have on the makeup of the council.

The district council seats  could be conducted in the same manner Even if there are three or more candidate running, if someone garners 50 percent plus one vote of the ballots cast, they win outright and avoid a November runoff.

Unless there isn’t a clear winner there is only the cost of running one campaign.

And while it would stretch out the campaign cycle over 10 months given you’d have to start running for a June election in January, it means whoever is elected to a four-year year term has the support of the majority of votes cast.

The argument for the mayor being elected by at majority of the votes cast is more specific.

Even though Manteca is a general law city meaning they mayor can’t act unilaterally on almost anything without cobbling together a majority of the council to support them, they do occupy the proverbial bully pulpit.

They set the tone of meetings. And by the fact they chair the meetings, they tend to do the most talking.

As such, they become the voice of the city even through that may not be the case as they could represent the minority views of the collective council or were elected without securing a majority.

But they are, regardless of their level of support on the council as a whole, the face of the city. They set the tone.

The also determine the decorum.

Whoever the mayor ends up being — Lei Ann Larson, Ben Cantu, or Gary Singh — will become “face” of the City of Manteca for the next four years.

It’s something to keep in mind.

 This column is the opinion of editor, Dennis Wyatt, and does not necessarily represent the opinions of The Bulletin or 209 Multimedia. He can be reached at dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com