The early election results are out and it appears that Santa Ana Mayor Valerie Amezcua is easily trouncing her police-bashing opponent, Santa Ana City Councilman Ben Vazquez, by almost 9,000 votes. Measure DD, which would have given undocumented immigrants the right to vote in Santa Ana elections, also appears to be going down in defeat by a similar margin.
Prop. 36, the California State Measure designed to put criminals behind bars, which Amezcua supported, is overwhelmingly winning with about 70% of the vote, according to the California early election results.
One of the City Council candidates that Amezcua supported, Jeffrey Katz, is in a virtual tie with the Ward 3 incumbent, Jessie Lopez. That is going to be a close race. Lopez got a lot of support from the Democratic Party of Orange County and the biggest factor in her favor may be that many of the Ward 3 residents who voted four years ago are gone now and the incoming residents have tended to be younger and more inclined to vote for liberals.
In a surprise Mario Alvarado is in a big hole in his race against Ward 5 incumbent Johnathan Ryan Hernandez, an avid cop-basher. Alvarado is down by about 400 votes in the early returns.
Over in Ward 1, the incumbent, Thai Viet Phan, is leading her opponent, businesswoman Julie Tran, by about one thousand votes.
Santa Ana’s Measure CC, which advances rent control, is currently leading by over 3,000 votes.
It also looks like the Santa Ana City Council Members will not be getting a giant raise as Measure FF is failing by over 10,000 votes.
Measure EE, which revised the City Charter, is passing with almost 75% of the vote.
In the SAUSD School Board races it looks like Alfonso “DUI” Alvarez is winning his reelection in Area 3 with over 60% of the vote, which is depressing. His fellow incumbent, Rigo Rodriguez, is sweating it as he is barely losing to his challenger Brenda Lebsack, over in Area 1. Valerie Magdaleno, who is backed by the SAUSD School Board incumbents, is easily winning her race in Area 2 over Lloyd Boucher-Reyes, with over 75% of the vote.
The latest SAUSD School Bond, Measure I, is winning with over 65% of the vote but the Rancho Santiago Community College District Bond, Measure G, is losing by five percentage points.
Former Santa Ana City Councilwoman Ceci Iglesias is prevailing in her race to replace Sal Tinajero on the Rancho Santiago Community College District’s Board in Area 3, with almost 45% of the vote. She ran a poorly funded campaign but was helped out by Tinajero’s allies.
David Crocket, the incumbent in Area 5 of the Rancho Santiago Community College District Board, is easily winning his race over challenger Mayra Ruiz by about 2,000 votes.
U.S. Rep. Lou Correa is sailing to reelection in the 46th Congressional District over David Pan, his Republican challenger, with almost 65% of the vote.
California State Assemblyman Avelino Valencia is also winning his reelection in the 68th Assembly District, over Republican challenger Mike Tardif, by about 65% of the vote.
In another hotly contested congressional race Dave “DUI” Min is beating his Republican challenger Scott Baugh by about 20,000 votes in the 47th Congressional District.
Finally sorry Trumpers but Kamala Harris is winning the Orange County vote with almost 54% of the vote over Donald Trump.
These are just the early election results so obviously the final numbers may be quite different however these early results are generally a good indicator of where these races are heading.
