City Councilman Jerry Thorne held a commanding early lead Tuesday night in his bid for election as mayor of Pleasanton with 6,455 votes against 5,088 cast for Councilwoman Cheryl Cook-Kallio.

Those vote totals with just 10 of the city's 47 precincts reported, or about 21%, gave Thorne 55.6% of the votes cast in the mayoral race so far, against 43.8% for Cook-Kallio. Significantly, the vote margin has held since the first votes were counted.

At the same time, Realtor Karla Brown in her bid for a City Council seat with 6,817, or 37%, of the votes cast in that race. Planning Commission Chairman Jerry Pentin held a close second position with 5,842 votes, or 32%, with a third candidate, Erlene DeMarcus, trailing with 3,430 votes, or 18.5%.

A fourth candidate, Mike Harris, dropped out of the City Council race this summer, but too late to keep his name off the ballot. Even so, he had received 2,332 votes, or 12.6% in the early evening returns.

The city's current mayor, Jennifer Hosterman, and council members Cindy McGovern and Matt Sullivan are stepping down this year because of term limits.

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