The bar was stocked, the room was full, but there were only light murmers in the ballroom of the DoubleTree Hotel as Nicole Parra’s supporters anxiously waited for their candidate to emerge for her victory party on the night of Nov. 7.
“I hope it gets a little crazy in here,” said Noe G, DJ for the event, who works at local radio station Hot 94.1. He said he came prepared to party, with “everything from hip-hop to country.”
It was at around midnight when Parra joined her supporters after the final vote tally had been counted showing Parra winning by a spread of 1,500 votes.
“I was prepared for a tight race,” Parra said in a speech after she was announced as winner. “I have the most competitive seat in the state of California.”
“A win is a win!” shouted one of her supporters, and she concurred as she talked about the closeness of the race and her feelings about it not being a landslide victory for her.
However, while Parra waited in the presidential suite of the hotel for the election results, her many supporters had been drinking cocktails and eating hor d’ouvres since 8 p.m. The mood was quiet, but upbeat, and there was only light cheering from time to time as television news crews went from booth to booth of the dining area, interviewing attendees.
When asked about the mellow mood, Andrew Hoag, a staffer for Parra, said, “The staff worked for so hard, for so long. The staff just has no energy to party.” He was assured that the quiet mood had nothing to do with the tight margin of victory that opponent Danny Gilmore held over her for most of the night.
“It’s not big news if she wins, we just expect it,” Hoag said.
Hoag also had some insight about the national elections and their consequences. “I think we will finally see a slowdown in what gets passed, less earmarked bills,” he said of a Democrat-controlled House. “Valley members in Congress will have more of a voice, but on the flip side, [Rep. Bill] Thomas won’t have the Appropriations Committee chair, so that might be a hit for the valley.”
When asked about Thomas’ successor, Congressman Kevin McCarthy, Hoag said that he could envision him being very frustrated in Washington, D.C., because of his freshman status in a now Democratic House of Representatives.
The attendees also seemed cautiously celebratory over the wins the Democratic Party had been experiencing across the country, which included control of the House of Representatives.
“I think that we need to find a solution to Iraq, negotiate peace, and have a clear plan,” said real estate broker Bernard Walker, talking in low tones. “People are looking for, they need a solution to problems we have. I hope we can address them now.”
If fatigue was the reason for the atmosphere at the party, then it was well-warranted. Parra’s staff and supporters had been out all of the day rallying up her base voters. Katie Barbero, a Parra staffer told about how the Parra team had been all over Bakersfield, taking water to polling places, and placing signs and magnets all over the city.
Ramon Jacquez, a 22-year-old Bakersfield College sociology student and liberal arts graduate had rigged up two huge “Re-elect Nicole Parra” signs in a sort of teepee in the bed of his truck. When asked why he supports Parra, he said, “I respect her, respect what she stands for. She makes sure people have what they need to survive, even if they are not in her precinct.”
Alma Hernandez, a staffer who had come down from the central Merced/Turlock area, talked about the unexpected things that happened during the course of the campaign, such as the close ties they had formed with the adjacent Chevron station, and the relationships they had formed with the local homeless in the area of the Parra headquarters, which was near the corner of California Avenue and H Street.
“We gave all the extra food that had been donated to us to the rescue mission on 23rd Street,” Hernandez said.