CAPITOLA >> A pair of Capitola City Council candidates hoping to achieve election to public office for the first time jumped in front of a pack of competitors after the first batch of ballots were tabulated on election night in Santa Cruz.

Gerry Jensen emerged at the top of the leaderboard with 2,120 votes or 34.6% while Melinda Orbach sat in second with 1,738 votes or 28%, a 382-vote difference.

“I feel great. I’ve really appreciated all the support that I received from all my endorsements,” Jensen told the Sentinel Wednesday. “The votes aren’t done yet, so I’m cautious. I’m extremely happy but very grateful to the other candidates for volunteering and stepping up to do the public service.”

Jensen, 56, a member of the Capitola Planning Commission and a builder by trade, previously ran for City Council in 2022 but failed to win a seat by a 24-vote margin. During this latest campaign, Jensen prioritized “missing middle” housing for teachers, police officers and firefighters, as well as road repairs, emergency management and bicycle and pedestrian safety.

Jensen is one of four candidates competing for two open council seats, each coming with a four-year term.

Orbach, 40, is running for public office for the first time after a career in medicine and public health. She currently works as a nurse practitioner at Sutter Health and built her campaign around a mission of advocating for residents living on the west side of the city — a demographic she said is currently underrepresented on the council where four of its five current members live on the east side.

Orbach expressed mixed feelings Wednesday; at once confident that she’ll finish in the top two when the final votes are tallied, but also despondent as she surveyed national returns.

“This local race is my saving grace given the devastating national presidential election results,” said Orbach. The Associated Press declared Wednesday that Donald Trump had won the race to become the 47th president of the United States, beating out Vice President Kamala Harris. “I’m hoping to at least be able to effect some change locally in Capitola and am so grateful to all my friends and neighbors and community members who believed in me and voted for me.”

According to Orbach, she will become the first Asian American woman elected to the Capitola City Council should she maintain her top-two status after all votes are counted.

The race’s sole incumbent, Margaux Morgan, tallied 1,210 votes, or 19.7% as of Wednesday and trailed Orbach by 528 votes. Morgan did not return a Sentinel request for comment before Wednesday’s print deadline.

Enrique Dolmo Jr., New Brighton Middle School’s athletic director and campus security, was in last with 1,010 votes or 16.5% of the city’s vote total. He also did not immediately respond to a Sentinel comment request.

Capitola has a population of 9,938 living within a geographic land area of about 1.6 square miles. During the 2022 race, 9,827 Capitola voters cast ballots for City Council, according to local election data.

As of Wednesday 96,486 total votes had been cast in Santa Cruz County with 81,354 of that total coming from vote by mail and 15,132 from in-person voting. According to Santa Cruz County Clerk Tricia Webber, those totals come from all the vote by mail that had been received through last weekend and all of the in-person votes that had been cast on Election Day or during the early voting period.

According to the county’s website, 35,000 vote by mail ballots, 3,700 same day registrations and 130 provisional ballots were still left to be counted. Another tabulation update will not be shared until approximately 4 p.m. Thursday.