Cathy Murillo, Randy Rowse and Dale Francisco will take the three open seats on the Santa Barbara City Council, according to semi-official results from the city clerk’s office.

As of press time on Tuesday afternoon, Francisco led the election with 15.86 percent of votes, followed by Murillo with 15.77 percent and Rowse with 15.40 percent. These results represent 41.26 percent — 18,387 votes — of the overall 44,562 registered voters in the city of Santa Barbara.

Murillo’s unofficial victory unseated incumbent candidate Michael Self, who had served on the council since 2009, and brings a liberal stance to the conservative-dominated council. The election will make Murillo, who also served as News and Public Affairs Director at KCSB and graduated from UCSB with a degree in Dramatic Art, the first Latina to be elected to the council.

Incumbent candidate Francisco also attended UCSB and graduated with a degree in computer science and English. Francisco was appointed to a four-year term in 2007 after serving as secretary for the nonprofit organization Santa Barbara SAFE Streets for two years.

Rowse has served on the council since 2010 and currently serves on the Downtown Organizations’ Executive Committee In addition, he owns Paradise Café in downtown Santa Barbara.

Iya Falcone and Self trailed the leaders in fourth and fifth place respectively, followed by Santa Barbara Democratic Party-endorsed Deborah Schwartz in sixth and Sharon Byrne in seventh. Candidates Sebastian Aldana Jr., Cruzito Cruz and Jerry Matteo placed in the last three spots, each receiving less than 3 percent of total votes thus far.

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