Joe Nelson, Staff Writer
Posted: 06/06/2012 05:54:24 PM PDT

Candidates for San Bernardino County’s 1st and 3rd District supervisorial seats will be ramping up their campaigns over the summer, vying to win in November’s general election.

In the 5th District, Board of Supervisors Chairwoman Josie Gonzales took home nearly 63 percent of the vote Tuesday, securing her place on the board for another four-year-term, her third.

Incumbent Supervisor Neil Derry will square off with former San Manuel tribal Chairman James Ramos for the 3rd District seat, while Victorville businessman Robert Lovingood and Apple Valley Councilman and San Bernardino County sheriff’s Lt. Rick Roelle will fight for the 1st District seat, where for the first time in the last decade the person holding the seat isn’t running for re-election.

First District Supervisor Brad Mitzelfelt ran for the newly created 8th Congressional District seat. He took in 11.6percent of the vote Tuesday, but it wasn’t enough to make it to the runoff with veteran politico Paul Cook, who will be going head-to-head with Gregg Imus in the November runoff.

The latest unofficial results released Wednesday show Ramos ahead of Derry in the 3rd District race with 46.9percent of the vote, while Derry secured 32.9percent.

Ramos said Wednesday that despite Derry’s assertions that preliminary polling numbers showed Derry in the lead, Tuesday’s results proved otherwise. He said the votes he and fellow challenger Jim Bagley received comprise the bulk of the 3rd District vote.

“The numbers I received and Bagley recieved show that more than 67percent voted for someone other than the incumbent,” Ramos said. “We’re looking forward to running our campaign, and we’re confident we’ll end up with the majority of votes in November.”

Derry declined to comment Wednesday, saying only he wanted to take a couple days off from campaigning to spend time with his family.

On Tuesday, Derry said Ramos outspent him three-to-one but is confident he will be able to pull ahead of Ramos in November.

The 1st District race saw Lovingood and Roelle running neck-and-neck, with Lovingood ahead of Roelle by less than two percentage points. Lovingood took home 21.3percent of the vote and Roelle 19.5percent.

Lovingood started his staffing agency, ICR Staffing Services, in 1989. And as he grew the business over the last 23 years he says he placed nearly 30,000 High Desert residents into jobs through his company.

It’s that profile that Lovingood says helped secure many votes – that and the more than $100,000 he poured into his campaign.

Lovingood said the major theme of his campaign is closing the budget gap without sacrificing county employees. That can be done, he said, by thoroughly evaluating programs and services and trimming the fat from the budget.

“I think people are looking for leadership outside of government, and they’re looking for someone who has signed the front of the check and the back of the check,” said Lovingood, 54.

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