Chris Skyhawk withdraws candidacy from District 5 supervisors race

Update 8 p.m. — This post has been updated to include a comment from the county registrar’s office.

MENDOCINO Co., 7/13/18 — Chris Skyhawk has withdrawn his candidacy from the District 5 supervisors race, according to an announcement from his partner made on his Facebook page yesterday afternoon. Skyhawk suffered a hemorrhagic stroke in late June and will be focusing on his recovery in the upcoming months.

“Chris loves this community. He feels very honored to have had so much support as a first-time candidate, and encourages everyone to remain active and vigilant in protecting this amazing place we are blessed to call home,” wrote his partner Samantha in the announcement yesterday.

Advertisements

Had he not withdrawn from the race, Skyhawk would have been facing off against candidate Ted Williams for the District 5 supervisor seat this November. Skyhawk won 31.1% of votes in the primary, a total of 1715 votes, compared with Williams, who received 2285 votes (41.4%) votes in the June primary election. Williams suspended his campaigning in June in response to Skyhawk’s stroke.

Due to provisions in the county’s code, Skyhawk will remain on the ballot, explained Katrina Bartolomie, assistant registrar, in an email.  “The election law has no provisions to take a candidate off the ballot unless they pass away,” Bartolomie wrote, and even in that case, the death must occur in advance of the election by a certain amount to allow the candidate’s name to be removed.

Advertisements

Donations towards Skyhawk’s recovery can be made to a GoFundMe site that has been set up by friends and family. In two days a total of 66 people have donated more than half of the goal, over $5,000, as of the time of publication. His family is also updating the community on his progress at this website, where you can search for updates on Chris Skyhawk.

Here’s the full announcement posted to Facebook yesterday from his partner Samantha:

As many of you know, late last month Chris Skyhawk suffered a severe hemorrhagic stroke. On behalf of Chris, and our whole family, we would like to thank everyone for the tremendous outpouring of support and love over the last few weeks. It has really meant a lot to us.

The good news is that Chris is out of critical danger. We are, however, looking at a long recovery road. At this point, our sole priority is to come together as a family and focus on Chris’ healing. We know that there is a lot of concern, but it is still too early to tell what that might look like and what full recovery might mean. In all cases the process will be all-encompassing for the foreseeable future. During this time we continue to ask for the community’s patience, and to respect our privacy so that we can focus on healing and family.

Chris Skyhawk has officially ended his campaign for Mendocino County Supervisor. Given the severity of stroke and the level of effort that will be necessary to heal, there is no chance Chris will re-join the race.

Chris loves this community. He feels very honored to have had so much support as a first-time candidate, and encourages everyone to remain active and vigilant in protecting this amazing place we are blessed to call home.

For anyone who would like to be updated as the recovery continues, we have set up a Caring Bridge page (Updates on Chris Skyhawk) as well as a Go Fund Me campaign to help with the financial burden (Chris Skyhawk Recovery Fund).

Again — thank you for the love and support. It has really meant the world to us.

Samantha

https://www.gofundme.com/chris-skyhawk-recovery-fund