Alan Wapner, the current District 3 councilmember who has been a councilmember for over 30 years, is ahead of progressive candidate Michael Rios by less than 150 votes.
Wapner initially ran for the mayor’s seat, but after the FBI raided his home last July, he dropped out and decided to continue a run for his District 3 seat instead.
He previously told KVCR that he has put the investigations behind him and said he has never been identified as a suspect after the searches.
Wapner did not respond for comment on the status of the polls.
Wapner mostly ran his campaign on improving city infrastructure to make Ontario more walkable. In the past, Wapner was a proponent of warehouse development, but has recently called for the slowing of new warehouse infrastructure due to diesel and smog pollution caused by increased trucking.
“We are the logistics capital of Southern California because of the three interstates, the airport [and] the two railroad lines but enough is enough,” Wapner said. “I don’t see hypocrisy because I think when the time was right, the time was right.”
Michael Rios, the progressive candidate in the race, has called for a full ban of warehouse development. He also addressed truck pollution and ran on affordability and transparency.
"I'm proud of this campaign honestly,” Rios said. “Between myself and volunteers, we canvassed about 5,000 homes.”
Rios said he’s still hopeful and is waiting for day-of votes and later mail-in ballots to be counted.
“We did a lot of outreach over the weekend, so we kind of hope that helps bump votes in our favor,” Rios said.