As of 6 p.m. this evening, with the tallying of the votes from Tuesday’s election ongoing, Mike Rios has pulled ahead of embattled Alan Wapner in the Ontario City Council District Three contest.
Wapner, who has served continuously on the Ontario City Council for 27 years and eleven months after first getting elected in 1994, was victorious in his 1998, 2002, 2006, 2010, 2014, 2018 and 2022 re-electoral efforts.
Last year, he had declared his intention to run for Ontario mayor, and collected $912,529.08 in donations between January 1, 2025 and June 30, 2026 to finance that campaign, in which he was to run against incumbent Mayor Paul Leon. Along the way, he had picked up the endorsements of Teamsters Local 1932 representing 380 Ontario city employees, American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 3061, representing 1,260 Ontario city employees, the Ontario Police Officers Association, representing the city’s police officer up to the rank of sergeant, the Ontario Police Management Group, representing Ontario’s police department’s lieutenant and captains, and the International Association of Fire Fighters Local 1430, representing the city’s firefighters. Upon completing his nomination papers for mayor and turning them into the Ontario City clerk’s office to qualify his mayoral candidacy in July, Wapner was widely considered by political prognosticators to be the odd-on favorite to prevail in the Ontario mayoral contest in the November 3 election.
In tandem with Wapner’s campaign for mayor, Jonathan Hagman, the son of one of Wapner’s political allies, San Bernardino County Fourth District Supervisor Curt Hagman, had thrown his hat in the ring and was vying to move into the position spot on the city council representing the city’s recently-created Third District, such that, if successful in the November election, young Hagman would effectively replace Wapner on the council and become, assuming Wapner was elected, a part of Wapner’s ruling council coalition.
On July 26, however, the FBI served search warrants at his home as well as at the home and office of Curt Hagman, as well as at the homes and offices of attorney Frank Lizerraga, the legal representative of Wapner as well as his wife, Ontario City Councilwoman Daisy Macias, Wapner’s wife, Judi, and Curt Hagman’s wife, Rosanna. The same day, the FBI served search warrants at the office of Andy Sehremelis, a major political donor to Wapner’s and Curt Hagman’s campaigns, as well as at the home an office of media empire mogul James Su, who together with his family and employees, made substantial donations to Curt Hagman’s political war chest. The FBI on July 26 had served subpoenas at Ontario City Hall and the offices of the Ontario International Airport Authority, the governing board of commissioners of which Wapner served as the chairman/president and Hagman was a commissioner.
The revelation of how far the federal investigation had advanced that accompanied word of the search warrants being served drew attention to previously existing accounts in the community relating to how Wapner, during his more than 30 years in elective office had become the most prolific fundraiser among local politicians in San Bernardino County history by shaking down individuals who had business before the Ontario City Council and the Ontario International Airport Authority, such as development proposals or applications as well as bids on contracts or franchises that were subject to approval by the city council or airport authority board. What was suddenly apparent to dozens, scores, hundreds and thousands and eventually tens of thousands of Ontario’s residents was the pay-to-play ethos that had gripped Ontario City Hall over the previous three decades and how Wapner had risen to the top in a system of governance dominated by graft and bribery.
Acting quickly before the filing period for candidacy in the November 3 election lapsed on August 7, Wapner prevailed upon Jonathan Hagman to rescind his candidacy in the city’s Third District and then withdrew himself as a candidate for mayor before refiling a a candidate in the Third District. He persuaded his political ally, Fourth District City Councilwoman Daisy Macias, to pull and file papers to take his place as a mayoral candidate opposing Leon. Both Jonathan Hagman and Macias obliged Wapner. By the August 7 deadline, both Wapner, as a District Three city council candidate, and Macias, as a mayoral hopeful, were qualified to be on the November 3 ballot.
Also running in District Three were D’Andre Lampkin, Larry Trinidad and Michael Rios.
Leon and Macias were facing each other in the mayor’s race, in which Kevin Kizzee and Nicolo Lalama were also vying.
Wapner faced the challenge of much negative publicity that attended the revelations regarding the criminal investigation the FBI was carrying out into him and a multiplicity of his actions, votes and political associates. While that was a relative disadvantage, he had eight successful election/reelections for city council under his belt and the additional experiential advantage of a previous successful election to the Ontario-Montclair School Board, superior name recognition and was able to transfer all of the money he had accumulated to finance his mayoral campaign into his council campaign coffers.
Whereas in bygone years, prior to mail-in voting, in all but the closest of electoral contests the outcome was determined by the tallying of votes on cast ballots that took place in the four hours before midnight of the election day after the 8 p.m. closing of polls or in the early a.m. hours of the following day, with the advent of mail-in ballots, the determination of election outcomes has now been delayed in many cases for up to 13 days after the closing of the polls on election day.
At 10 p.m., when the early arriving mail-in ballots received by election day were counted along with the results from the polling precincts around the city were counted Wapner was in the lead, with 2,006 or 31.15 percent of the 6,439 votes in the race processed up to that point. He was followed by Rios, who claimed 1,876 voter endorsements or 29.13 percent; Trinidad with 1,480 votes or 22.98 percent and Lampkin, with 1,077 votes or 16.73 percent.
It appeared that Wapner’s fundraising advantage, which had allowed him to run a campaign that featured radio and television spots, mailers touting his experience and accomplishments in office, newspaper ads, signs and phone banks, had carried the day at the polls on November 3, as well as in the days leading up to it when the voters in Ontario’s Third District had filled in their mail ballots.
In the mayor’s race, the results established a ratio between the four competitors that has essentially remained intact over the next three days: Macias captured 7,332 or 38.63 percent of the 18,979 votes counted by that point, outdistancing the incumbent, Leon, who polled 6,137 votes or 32.34 percent, with Kizzee in a distant third place with 3,175 votes or 16.73 percent and Lalama in fourth with 2,335 votes or 12.30 percent.
Two hours later, at midnight, the totals in the District 3 had changed, but in a way that was barely perceptible, given that only 43 more votes had come in to be counted. Wapner had picked up three votes, so that his total now stood at 2,009 or 30.99 percent of the 6,482 votes received overall, down slightly from where he had stood previously, but not to a degree that was alarming for his camp. Still, things were trending positively for Rios, who picked up 17 votes to reach 1,893 or 29.20 percent. Trinidad, likewise, had moved up on Wapner, capturing 15 more votes, giving him a subtotal of 1,495 or 23.06 percent. Lampkin, too, had gained slightly on the leader, as he brought in another eight votes, such that he now had 1,085 or 16.74 percent.
Two hours later, at 2 a.m., a significant number of further votes, 871, had arrived and were counted, which upped the number of votes tallied to 7,353. Wapner was still out in front and the trending appeared to be generally in his favor. Of the 871 ballots that had arrived, 234 were marked for him, boosting his vote total to 2,243 while dropping his percentage to 30.49 percent. Rios, meanwhile picked up fewer votes than had Wapner, that being 197, pushing him to a subtotal of 2,090, whereby he lost ground to the incumbent councilman. Trinidad made a more impressive show during that two hours, bringing in 267 votes, which pumped his total to 1,762 and 23.95 percent, which, given his persisting third place position, was still not perceived as a threat to Wapner. Lampkin garnered 173 new votes, putting him at 1,258, leaving him well off the pace with 17.10 percent.
At 4 a.m. on November 4, there was another dump of 781 ballots cast within Ontario’s Third District. At that point, 8,134 ballots in the district were in and counted. Wapner yet appeared to be holding his own, as 198 of those contained votes for him, putting him at 2,441 votes. His performance relative to the others did, however, drop him to 29.99 percent, putting him below the 30 percent threshold. Rios, was making strides, even if they did not appear to be on a strong enough pace to push him into the lead. He collared 210 votes, keeping him in a strong second place with 2,305 votes and 28.32 percent. Trinidad made an even more vertical jump, hauling in 226 votes. Still, with 1,988, votes, his 24.42 percent left him way back. Similarly, Lampkin’s gain of 142 votes, raising his total to 1,400 or 17.2 percent did nothing to put Wapner’s lead in danger.
The next tally was released 14 hours later, at 6 p.m. on Wednesday. At that point, however, no further ballots originating from Ontario’s Third District beyond what had been counted as of 4 a.m. that moring were tallied.
24 hours later, on Thursday November 5, 730 ballots from District 3 in Ontario were processed by the registrar of voters office. Wapner saw his total rise by 195 votes, to 2,636 votes, which entailed a modest drop in his percentage of the vote in the four-way race to 29.74 percent. Rios added 246 votes, such that his tally was 22,551, less than 100 votes behind Wapner, another significant threshold, representing 28.78 percent of the overall 8,864 votes case by the district’s residents that had been counted. Trinidad, who pulled in 169 votes, lost ground to Wapner, and his total of 2,157 was more than 400 behind the leader, and his percentage of 24.33 percent put him over 5 percent down. Lampkin scored 169 more votes, but he too was failing to close the gap separating him from the lead, as he had 1,520 votes or 17.15 percent.
Another day passed and at 6 p.m. today, Friday November 6, the processing of another 1,113 ballots was reported. Of those, 297 designated votes for Wapner. That number was surpassed, significantly, by the ballots marked in favor of Rios: 398. Trinidad, losing ground to Wapner, gathered 226 votes. Lampkin brought in a respectable 192 votes. When the numbers were counted, counted again and then tallied a third time just to make sure, Wapner was no longer at the head of the back. Rios had overcome his 85 vote deficit to Wapner the previous day to zoom into first place with 2,949 votes of the 9,977 that had been cast and counted thus far, or 29.56 percent, to Wapner’s 2,933 votes or 29.40 percent. Rios had assumed first place. The margin of difference was a mere 16 votes, yet one that put Wapner, who had never, in eight municipal races never tasted the bitter ashes of defeat, in the role of a prospective loser.
The San Bernardino County Registrar of Voters’ next scheduled posting of election results is to be made on Saturday at 6 p.m.