The Seaside City Council race was a game of musical chairs, with three candidates circling for two seats. Incumbent Steve Bloomer and establishment challenger Ian Oglesby won the posts with 35 percent and 41 percent of the vote, respectively. Felix Bachofner, who earned nearly 24 percent, was the odd man out.

“It’s a great night for the city of Seaside,” said Oglesby, who spent the Election Night at the Seaside Democratic headquarters. He said he was also happy to see voters rejected Measure E, the utility tax repeal: “We need that revenue right now.”

Pacific Grove’s City Council race was more heated, with eight non-incumbent candidates jousting for three open seats. As of early Wednesday morning, Bill Kampe had won 21 percent of vote. Carmelita Garcia, with 14 percent, and Deborah Lindsay, with 12 percent, looked to join him at City Hall.

“I’m really delighted by the support I’ve had from so many people in this city during the election,” Kampe said, speaking by phone Tuesday night after his house party in P.G. “I’m feeling hopeful about the prospects.”

He’d have to get straight to the business of dealing with city workers’ retirement benefits, he added: Measure Y, which replaces P.G.’s Public Employees’ Retirement System with a defined-contribution plan, was passing with 57 percent approval.

P.G. voters also approved Measure X, a $35 parcel tax for schools.

In Monterey, sitting councilmembers Libby Downey and Jeff Haferman both won another term on the panel. As of Nov. 5, both incumbents had received 36 percent of the vote, compared to challenger Ralph Widmar’s 27 percent.

Countywide, a lot was riding on Measure Z, a sales tax increase of one-half of one percent. The measure would have generated almost $1 billion over 25 years for local highway, road and public transit improvements. By 11pm the measure was just shy of the two-thirds approval needed to pass, getting the green light from 61 percent of voters. According to the semi-final official report on Nov. 5, the numbers had inched up– with 62 percent of voters saying yes to the tax increase– but still hadn’t hit the two-thirds requirement.

Measure C, which authorizes $11.6 million in bonds to upgrade West Hills Community College, passed with a resounding 100 percent approval– from the district’s two voters.