Even if one hadn’t read a word about Marina politics, stepping inside the venues of the two rival camps on Election Night would have told the story of split ideologies in play.

At the gathering for mayoral candidate Dave McCall and council hopeful Nancy Amadeo, a Dixieland duo plays patriotic tunes to an older, white-haired crowd at American Legion Post 694.

The party for incumbent Mayor Bruce Delgado and his allied council candidates, David Brown and David Burnett, is attended by a relatively younger crowd at Mountain Mike’s Pizza, where a DJ spins break beats.

Patti Bradshaw, an elderly McCall supporter at the American Legion, puts it succinctly: “We’re all a bunch of friends. This is old Marina. I’ve been a resident since 1978.”

Early results have McCall trailing by 11 percent – a gap that by Wednesday morning would grow to 14 percent, with a semi-final tally of 57 percent for Delgado and 43 percent for McCall. Amadeo and Brown would take the two council seats, with about 34 percent each.

But McCall doesn’t seem upset. “Either way, I’ve been serving the city for 17 years,” he says. “I’ll serve in another way.”

Over at Mountain Mike’s, 10-year Marina resident Greg Furey addresses annexation of CSU-Monterey Bay’s East Campus, a top issue for Delgado’s camp. “We want students to shop here, but they can’t vote here? It makes no sense,” he says. “Our opponents see them as a liberal voting population.”

Jan Shriner, a candidate for the Marina Coast Water District, is clearly at home among Delgado’s leftie crowd, which has only recently gained more power in Marina.

“I was told that anyone who wanted to be involved in politics had to go through the American Legion,” she says. “We honor our veterans. But we’re moving from a fort town to a college town.”

Delgado works the room with handshakes and hugs before hunkering down to some pizza. “This is the first time I’ve been ahead in early returns,” he says. “It’s different to be at a party when you’re down in points.”

As different as they are, both camps share one fashion trend: gear repping the San Francisco Giants.