As ballot-counting continues days after the end of the March primary, the question of which two candidates will face each other in two local legislative races in November seems to hinge on mere hundreds of votes.
In the 79th Assembly District, La Mesa Councilmember Colin Parent appeared likely to advance to the general election, but his competitors were still locked in a close race based on partial election returns released Friday.
And in the 75th District, although former San Diego City Councilmember and congressional candidate Carl DeMaio held a comfortable lead, his fellow Republican Andrew Hayes was trailing current second-place finisher Democrat Kevin Juza by fewer than 800 votes.
County election officials had tallied more than 567,000 ballots as of Friday. They estimated they still had 138,000 left to be counted.
Parent ran against two other Democrats — Lemon Grove Mayor Racquel Vasquez and LaShae Sharp-Collins — in the 79th, which stretches from southeastern San Diego to El Cajon, to replace Akilah Weber as she runs for state Senate. He was leading by 9 percentage points Friday evening, with Vasquez in second — less than 2 points ahead of Sharp-Collins.
The top two vote-getters in each district will advance to the fall runoff, regardless of political party.
In the race for the open 75th District seat, which spans inland North and East County, three Republicans and three Democrats were competing to replace Marie Waldron, who was facing term limits, in a district that has favored Republicans.
As of Friday, DeMaio was more than 20 points ahead of Juza, a small business owner, his closest rival. But Juza was less than a point ahead of Hayes, an aide to state Sen. Brian Jones.
DeMaio’s campaign had promoted Juza, apparently in the hopes of facing him on the November ballot in the heavily Republican district.
However, DeMaio said it doesn’t matter who he faces in November, as his true opponent will be state leaders. “We have a broken system,” he said. “I’m the only one that’s going to do the work to try to fight that.”
In the 76th District in northern San Diego and North County, Republican Kristie Bruce-Lane — who narrowly lost to termed-out incumbent Brian Maienschein in 2022 — appears set for a runoff with Democrat Darshana Patel, a scientist and Poway Unified school board member.
Democrat Joseph Rocha, a Marine officer and attorney who was trailing in third, said he called Patel Wednesday to congratulate her. “We ran the campaign of my dreams,” he added.
And in the Democratic-leaning coastal 77th Assembly District, Democratic incumbent Tasha Boerner appeared likely to face Republican James Browne in November.
Under California law, the county registrar has 30 days to certify election results. The results must be certified by April 4, and the registrar expects to use the full certification period to make sure the results are accurate.
For updated election result totals, visit sdvote.com.
