California Assembly Speaker Kevin Mullin and San Mateo County Supervisor David Canepa were leading in Tuesday’s primary race to fill the seat being vacated by longtime Peninsula Congresswoman Jackie Speier, who has held it since 2008, according to early election results.
Initial tallies of mail ballots in San Mateo and San Francisco counties suggest Mullin and Canepa could be headed to a runoff in the Nov. 8 general election to represent the Democratic stronghold.
According to preliminary results from San Mateo and San Francisco counties, Mullin held a sizable lead with 41.1% of total counted votes so far ahead of Canepa, who has received about 24.8% of the total vote.
U.S. Rep. Speier announced in November she would not seek reelection, opening the 15th Congressional District seat to veteran politicians such as Mullin and Canepa, as well as Burlingame Councilwoman Emily Beach and Republican businessman Gus Mattammal.
Early results showed Mattammal in third place and Beach in last.
Open congressional seats have been rare in the Bay Area, where incumbents such as Rep. Zoe Lofgren in San Jose and Rep. Barbara Lee of Oakland have served several terms. Both are considered wide favorites to win their seats again this year.
In December, Mullin was endorsed by Speier, which gave an early boost to his campaign. Mullin was a former aide to Speier and also received endorsements from a number of elected officials, including California Attorney General Rob Bonta, California State Treasurer Fiona Ma and California Lieutenant-Governor Eleni Kounalakis.
Other candidates blasted the Democratic establishment for appearing to tap Mullin before voters got a chance to know all the candidates.
Minutes after Speier endorsed Mullin, Canepa — whom polls showed running neck and neck with Mullin — blasted out an email touting his own fundraising numbers and calling the endorsement by Speier and other top Democrats a “coronation.”
“I’m very encouraged by the early results, and there are going to be votes there we can take in November,” Canepa said minutes after the initial results were posted in San Mateo County.
“I feel good going into November,” Canepa said. “We need to hit the ground and point, that’s what we have to do to be successful. Keep knocking on doors.”
Canepa said in an interview during the campaign that if Mullin got over 40% of the vote he will “buy him a steak dinner.” Though he’s hoping Mullin won’t get that much support from voters, he said “we live for another election it looks like.”
He added that he expected to do better in San Francisco where he put a lot of his campaign’s effort, and he said he’ll try to pull voters away from Mullin’s camp.
Leaving his election party Tuesday night, Mullin said he was “thrilled with the resounding result tonight” but remained mindful that “this is a two-part process.”
“We’re going to be running very hard until November,” Mullin said. “I think this is a validation of the experience and qualifications I’ve built up over the past decade in Sacramento. I’ve built up trust with voters since I’ve been representing many of them in the state capitol.”
Mullin said “there’s no doubt” that Speier’s endorsement was crucial in this race, and he said he’ll be doubling down and running ads to complete the second part of the race and make it to Washington, D.C.
He also said he’d gladly take Canepa up on a steak dinner.
“I welcome a steak dinner, I take it medium well and that can be at Westlake Original Joe’s restaurant,” he said. “We can talk about how to run a positive issues-oriented campaign.”
Mullin, who has served in the state Assembly since 2012, first began his foray into politics as a South San Francisco councilmember in 2007. Four years later, he became mayor. He also represented San Mateo County cities on the Metropolitan Transportation Commission.
In his first term as assemblyman, Mullin served as assistant speaker pro tempore until he was sworn in as speaker in December 2014.
In this midterm election, House candidates across the country have raised more than $1 billion for their campaigns, and that kind of big spending held up in the 15th congressional district, where candidates have raised nearly $2.5 million to fill the open congressional seat.
Mullin raised a total of $807,693 as of mid-May, while Canepa trailed with $672,473 and Beach came in third with $547,472.
In stark contrast to his Democrat opponents, Republican Mattammal has raised just $37,156 and spent almost as much. He said in an interview he expects to ramp up fundraising once he secures a top-two spot in the primary election.
Mattammal, who received 16.4% of the vote according to early results, said in an interview that these are early results and could still get to the top-two spot.
“To the extent the in-person votes from yesterday and today haven’t been counted yet, then there’s still plenty of time for a comeback,” Mattammal said. “But I’m pleased with the campaign we ran and hopeful that we can still catch up.”
Source: www.mercurynews.com