Super Tuesday has come and gone, but officials at county election offices across the state are still hard at work tallying the votes. The Monterey and Santa Cruz County election offices are planning to release a big batch of new election results this afternoon that will help clarify where many of the ballot measures and candidates stand.
One of the closest races is Measure N, the bond issue that would provide $116 million to fund improvements for the Watsonville Community Hospital. The measure needs two-thirds of voter approval to pass.
“I’m cautiously optimistic,” said Quiché Rubalcava, who supports a yes vote on Measure N. He has worked at Watonsville Community Hospital as a nurse for over 20 years. “I won’t feel really joyful until we get those final results.
As of Friday morning, Yes on Measure N is at 68.3% of the vote — just a couple of percentage points above the threshold to pass.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Quiché Rubalcava: What the experts on our team are telling us is that we're in a pretty good position right now. We expect the numbers to go up. We expect our favorable numbers to go up. Our percentage should go up. But, you know, we still have to count the ballots.
KAZU: It's probably the closest ballot measure from the primaries at the moment. What happens if it doesn't pass?
Rubalcava: If it doesn't pass, my understanding is that we're going to give it another go in November. We'll try again in the general election. I mean, we're not going to give up. We have to just go for it. If it doesn't pass, we're just going to have to go forward again in November because … we need this bond for the hospital to survive so that we can buy our property back, and we can make the expansion of [emergency department] to attract more patients and just start turning the hospital around.
It's imperative that we do pass this bond. We have to pass it. If it passed during the primary election, that's fantastic. If it passes in the general election in November, that's fantastic.
KAZU: You said it was imperative. Without this money, do you feel like the hospital's at risk of shutting down?
Rubalcava: … Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. That puts us in a position where — we don't want to be in that position. If it doesn't pass, you know, it puts us in a situation where our options become more limited and the path forward becomes more narrow.
KAZU: On the flip side of the coin, if Measure N does pass, what happens next? And, will you be celebrating?
Rubalcava: I think we will celebrate for at least a day. We'll celebrate that night when it's finalized. But then we'll have to go back to work and, there’s going to be a lot of work involved. Obviously.
KAZU: As a nurse who's been with the hospital for 21 years, how would it make you feel to know that this money is coming through?
Rubalcava: It would certainly validate our, persistence and our love for this hospital. Many of us have been on a march for 20 years-plus to secure our hospital, to secure healthcare to our patients that we care about. And, many of us are from here, so we're local. We were born here, were born in Watsonville, were born in the county.
And it's going to really make us proud. We're going to walk proud because this is what we've been fighting for 20 years. We faced a Goliath, and we survived. And our hospital survived because we never gave up. We never gave up for decades. I mean, some of the nurses have been fighting for 30 years. And they stayed here because they believed in the hospital … they believed in the community, and they believed in helping people. And they're committed to that ideal of serving our patients and serving our community.
KAZU will add results to our Election Returns page as we receive more election returns from Central Coast counties. See www.kazu.org/elections for all of our Super Tuesday reporting.
