The early results are in and Sarmiento is in the lead in the Mayor’s race

The early results are in and it looks like Santa Ana’s next Mayor could be Vince Sarmiento. He has the early lead with almost 35% of the vote. Behind him are Claudia Alvarez with 22.24% of the vote; Ceci Iglesias with 18.79% of the vote and Jose Solorio with only 15.51% of the vote.

In the City Council races the early leaders are:

• Thai Viet Phan in Ward 1 with just under 45% of the vote
• Jessie Lopez, in a shocker, has 33.79% of the vote in Ward 3, leading Mark McLoughlin and Jeffrey Katz.
• In another shocker Jonathan Ryan Hernandez is leading in Ward 5 with 40.46% of the vote over the incumbent, Juan Villegas, who has 33.49% of the vote.

In the SAUSD School Board race, as predicted, the three incumbents are comfortably ahead. It is very hard to beat SAUSD School Board incumbents.

Supervisor Andrew Do is ahead of his Democratic challenger, Sergio Contreras, by about three percentage points in the First Supervisorial District.

In the race for the Rancho Santiago Community College District’s Board of Trustees these candidates are leading:

• In Area 3 former Santa Ana City Councilman Sal Tinajero is leading his opponent, Mike Gonzales, with 65% of the vote.
• In Area 5 the endorsed Democrat, David Crockett, is leading former Santa Ana City Councilman Brett Franklin with 54% of the vote
• In Area 7, as we predicted, Dr. Tina Arias Miller is leading former U.S. Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez with over 53% of the vote

Here are the early results in the State Legislative races:

• Republican Janet Nguyen is losing to Democrat Diedre Nguyen in the race for the 72nd Assembly District by a margin of a couple percentage points. This race is still very close.
• Tom Daly, the incumbent in the 69th Assembly District, is leading comfortably over Trumper Jon Paul White with over 75% of the vote.
• Irvine City Councilwoman Melissa Fox, a Democrat, is leading in the race for the 68th Assembly District over incumbent Steven Choi by about 5 percentage points
• Josh Newman is leading the Republican incumbent, Ling Ling Chang, with 56% of the vote in the 29th State Senate District
• In a shocker incumbent Republican John Moorlach is losing to Democratic challenger Dave Min in the 37th District by about 14 percentage points

The Democrats are holding on to the local House seats in the early results:

• Gil Cisneros is leading with 52% of the vote in the 39th District, over Republican Young Kim – that margin could be larger as that District includes voters in L.A. County who typically vote Democrat
• Katie Porter is leading with over 60% of the vote in the 45th District, over Republican Greg Raths
• Lou Correa is leading with over 72% of the vote in the 46th District over Republican James Walters
• Harley Rouda is leading with over 55% of the vote in the 48th District over Republican Michelle Steel
• Mike Levin is leading with over 51% of the vote in the 49th District over Republican Brian Maryott, however that vote is misleading as that District includes voters in San Diego County who typically vote Democrat

Art Pedroza Editor

Our Editor, Art Pedroza, worked at the O.C. Register and the OC Weekly and studied journalism at CSUF and UCI. He has lived in Santa Ana for over 30 years and has served on several city and county commissions. When he is not writing or editing Pedroza specializes in risk control and occupational safety. He also teaches part time at Cerritos College and CSUF. Pedroza has an MBA from Keller University.

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