Riverside County
Incumbent Democrat Sharon Quirk-Silva is leading Republican Soo Yoo in Assembly District 67 in Riverside County, according to preliminary Nov. 8 midterm election results.The latest unofficial results show Yoo with 49.4 percent of the vote and Quirk-Silva with 50.6 percent. Yoo has so far received 35,138 votes over Quirk-Silva’s 35,975, as of the afternoon of Nov. 11.
Sacramento County
Republican Josh Hoover and incumbent Democrat Ken Cooley are also in a close race for California Assembly District 7 in Sacramento County.“In the two updates since the first drop we have gained about 3,000 votes, and so we fully expect to pass Ken Cooley sometime in the next week or so,” Hoover told The Epoch Times on Nov. 9. “I think our team ran a fantastic campaign. We stayed focused on the messages that we believe Californians and our community cares about, and I think we’re going to win because of that.”
As of Oct. 22, Cooley raised about $3.6 million in campaign contributions, while Hoover brought in approximately $920,000.
San Diego County
In Assembly District 76 in north San Diego County, Republican Kristie Bruce-Lane is leading her Democrat opponent Brian Maienschein with 50.1 percent of the vote over his 49.9 percent. Currently Bruce-Lane has 47,077 votes over Maienschein’s 46,857.Bruce-Lane raised about $600,000 in campaign funds compared to Maienschein’s $1.4 million.
Meanwhile, Matt Gunderson, a Republican, is locked in a close race with Democrat Catherine Blakespear for a seat in the state Senate for District 38 in San Diego County.
Super-Minority Remains
However, even if Republicans make these gains in the state Legislature, it may not be enough to overcome their super-minority status at the state level.Before the election, there were nine Republicans out of 40 seats in the state Senate, along with 19 out of 80 in the Assembly. Republicans would need at least one-third of each chamber to be able to veto certain measures requiring a two-thirds majority, such as new taxes.
California Secretary of State Shirley Weber has until Dec. 16 to certify official election results.