Early election results were pouring in Tuesday night for competitive state legislative races around the Bay Area, including some contests in the East Bay and South Bay in which millions have been spent supporting or opposing candidates.
In all state legislative seat races, the top two vote-getters will advance to a runoff in the November general election.
In state Senate District 10, which includes part of both Santa Clara County and Alameda County, Fremont Mayor Lily Mei was well ahead of Hayward Councilmember Aisha Wahab in the crowded race. The district includes about 1 million people across large swaths of the East Bay and South Bay, including all of Hayward, Fremont, Union City, Newark, Sunnyvale and Santa Clara, as well as a small portion of northeast San Jose.
The race is for a seat that will be open after current Sen. Bob Wieckowski terms out at the end of the year.
Church pastor Paul Pimentel, the lone Republican in the race, was in third place. Attorney Jamal Khan, software engineer Raymond Liu and longtime Santa Clara Unified School District board member Jim Canova were all following far behind.
Mei raised about $612,000 in donations to her campaign as of Tuesday, according to state campaign finance records. She also benefitted from about $862,000 worth of support from various Independent Expenditure Committees, funded by dialysis company DaVita, California Association of Realtors, cigarette producer Phillip Morris, the California Chamber of Commerce, Uber, insurance agents, police unions and oil companies, among others.
Wahab raised about $683,000 so far in donations, and has received outside support from Independent Expenditure Committees worth nearly $800,000. Most of that is funded by the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 3299, which is the University of California’s largest employee union. The union has spent nearly $600,000 on supporting Wahab already, and pledged early in the race to support her with $1 million over the election year. Other support came from groups funded in part by Lyft, an arm of Service Employees International Union, caregivers, and consumer attorneys, among others.
After posting initial results, the Santa Clara County registrar’s office estimated that it had counted about 45% of the total ballots it expects to receive in this election, including mail-in ballots and those cast in person. Only about 16% of eligible voters in the county had cast votes so far. In Alameda County, about 9% of eligible voters had cast votes. The Alameda County registrar’s office did not provide an estimate of how many total votes it expected to receive.
Across some similar territory in Milpitas, Fremont, Newark and parts of San Jose, first-term progressive Assemblymember Alex Lee appeared to be holding his own against stiff competition.
He held a roughly two-to-one lead in votes ahead of Republican Bob Brunton, a perennial Assembly candidate, and Kansen Chu — the former Assemblymember who held Lee’s seat before him. Fremont Councilmember Teresa Keng was in a distant fourth place, and former San Jose councilmember Lan Diep was bringing up the rear.
In Alameda County, labor union treasurer Liz Ortega was leading Dublin Councilmember Shawn Kumagai for the Assembly District 20 seat. Current Assemblyman Bill Quirk will be stepping down at the end of this year, leaving the seat open. Nearly $3 million has been spent supporting the three Democratic candidates in the race.
The seat represents all of San Leandro, Hayward and Union City, parts of Dublin and Pleasanton, and all of the unincorporated areas of San Lorenzo, Ashland, Cherryland and Castro Valley. Retired computer scientist Joseph Grcar, the only Republican candidate, was in third place, while Jennifer Esteen, a registered nurse and former labor organizer, was in fourth place.
Ortega had raised about $426,000 in donations, but was also backed the by the same UC employees union backing Wahab, to the tune of about $500,000. The Bricklayers and Allied Craftworkers Local 3 union also spent about $150,000 supporting her.
Esteen had raised about $460,000 for her campaign, largely from individuals and various arms of Service Employees International Union, for which she used to organize.
Kumagai had raised about $336,000 for his campaign, and also had about $880,000 in outside support from many of the same groups backing Mei, including oil industry interests, police unions, cigarette producers and Uber, among others.
On the Peninsula, San Mateo Vice Mayor Diane Papan held a commanding lead among a field of seven in Assembly District 21, which encompasses eastern San Mateo County and includes the cities of Belmont, Burlingame, East Palo Alto, Foster City, Millbrae, Redwood City, San Bruno, San Carlos, San Mateo and portions of South San Francisco.
Papan, the daughter of former Assembly Speaker Lou Papan, had earned more than double the number of votes of Republican business owner Mark Gilham, and roughly three times the votes of Redwood City Mayor Giselle Hale.
South San Francisco City Councilmember James Coleman was well behind in fourth. Attorney and tenant advocate Alison Madden, San Mateo County Community College District Trustee Maurice Goodman, and Green Party candidate Tania Solé rounded out the bottom of the race.
Source: www.mercurynews.com