Registrar certifies election; Estrada wins by 368 votes

By Doug Spoon, Editor

The County Registrar of Voters certified and posted the final vote totals for the local election Tuesday. In the final tally, Ricky Estrada defeated Lesa Sobek by 368 votes for the Menifee Mayor’s seat.

Estrada will be sworn in as Mayor at a 4 p.m. City Council meeting on Dec. 17. Bob Karwin, winner of the District 1 council seat, will be sworn in also, along with Dan Temple, who won the District 3 council seat.

Estrada’s move into the Mayor’s seat will leave a vacancy in District 2, which he has represented since 2022. It will be up to the four seated City Council members to decide whether to appoint a replacement or vote to hold a special election.

The last time a Menifee City Council faced this situation was in 2018, when Mayor Neil Winter passed away. At that time, council members Sobek, John Denver, Greg August and Matt Liesemeyer deliberated through two council meetings before voting 3-1 to appoint Bill Zimmerman Mayor.

That appointment came on the final day of a 60-day period during which the council had to either appoint a replacement or schedule a special election. Council members took public testimony during the previous two meetings before making a decision.

In other issues, both local school bond measures – Measure R in Menifee Union School District and Measure I in Romoland School District – passed. In addition, Christopher Carnes won the race for the Area 4 seat on the Valley-Wide Recreation and Park District board.

Here are the final results, as certified by the Registrar:

Menifee mayor:
Ricky Estrada 22,273 votes (44.33%)
Lesa Sobek 21,905 votes (43.60%)
Dameon Greene 6,061 votes (12.06%)

City Council District 1:
Bob Karwin 6,885 votes (57.61%)
Mark Harkay 5,067 votes (42.39%)

City Council District 3:
Dan Temple 7,549 votes (66.28%)
Felix Montano 2,013 votes (17.67%)
Gene Recor 1,819 votes (15.97%)
Jay Sno-Fly (write-in) 9 votes

Measure R - Bond Measure for Menifee Union School District
Yes 29,543 votes (56.22%)
No 23,003 votes (43.78%)

Measure I - Bond Measure for Romoland School District
Yes 8,854 votes (58.92%)
No 6,172 votes (41.08%)

Director, Valley-Wide Recreation and Park Dist. Area 4
Christopher Carnes 14,259 votes (53.15%)
Angela Domenigoni Little 12,568 votes (46.85%)