As of midnight Tuesday, with 87 percent of the votes in, Joan Hartmann leads Bruce Porter by 2,500 votes in the race for Santa Barbara County Supervisor, 3rd District. 

With 61 of the 66 precincts reported, and 23, 739 votes counted, Hartmann leads with 13,025 to Porter’s 10, 654.

“We’ve run the best campaign we know how to run, and I am so grateful to the people who voted for me and my amazing campaign workers,” Hartmann said.

At 8 p.m. members of the Hartmann campaign began arriving at Pascucci’s restaurant in Goleta.

Hartmann, who grew up in Glendora, a small community 20 miles from Los Angeles, was accompanied by many of her friends and members of her campaign, including campaign manager Mary Rose.

For approximately half a century, the race to occupy the 3rd District seat has been divided between a progressive-leaning candidate, often living in the south of the district, and a conservative-leaning one, living in the north.  

Two liberal supervisors represent the 1st and 2nd southern districts and two conservatives represent the 4th and 5th in the north; the 3rd District is the swing vote.  

“Joan is more reflective for the district as a whole, which has very diverse people” said Rose, before leaving for the Standing Sun Winery in Buellton for Hartmann’s continued celebration.

Porter, a military veteran who attended West Point and graduated in 1976, held his election day party at Sunstone Winery in Santa Ynez, where a smaller group of republicans sat at round tables drinking wine and awaiting results.

“It was a really good night,” said Porter. “We were stronger than we thought on the central coast. and are totally ahead of what we thought.”

Hartmann’s party started to dwindle at about 10 p.m. her campaign, who is adamant about building on Santa Barbara county’s agriculture and wine industries, left very satisfied, and according to Rose, very optimistic about the final results.