Rafu Staff Report
Following are county and city results for Asian Pacific American candidates in the June 3 election in California.
County Races
• Alameda: Supervisor Wilma Chan of District 3 (Alameda, San Leandro, Oakland, San Lorenzo) ran unopposed for re-election, receiving 26,669 votes (97.59 percent). She has served on the Board of Supervisors since 2011 and previously served in the Assembly.
• Contra Costa: Karen Sakata was elected county superintendent of schools with 68,424 votes (60.87 percent) to school administrator Linda Delehunt’s 43,295 (38.51 percent). Sakata is currently deputy superintendent.
• Fresno: Superior Court Judge Dale Ikeda of Judicial District 12 was returned to office without opposition.
In Supervisorial District 1, Brian Pacheco, a member of the Kerman Unified School District Board of Trustees, received 5,536 votes (36.70 percent) and will be in a runoff with Fresno City Councilmember Blong Xiong (5,447 votes, 36.1 percent). Also running were Kerman Mayor Gary Yep (2,332 votes, 15.46 percent), pastor John Flores (900 votes, 5.97 percent) and teacher Frank Maldonado (813 votes, 5.39 percent). Xiong also ran for Congress in 2012.
In Supervisorial District 4, Selma raisin farmer Amandip Singh Gill was in last place out of five candidates with 845 votes (5.53 percent). The top two finishers were farmer and small businessman Buddy Mendes with 7,596 (49.70 percent) and Fowler City Councilmember Daniel Para with 3,214 (21.03 percent).
• Los Angeles: The 12 candidates for county assessor included Assessment Appeals Board member John Y. Wong, third place with 67,300 votes (11.28 percent); Deputy Assessor Sandy Sun, seventh place with 46,101 (7.73 percent), Deputy Assessor Krish Kumar, ninth place with 26,099 (4.37 percent); and appraiser Tracy Okida, 10th place with 21,186 (3.55 percent). The candidates in the runoff are Special Assistant Assessor Jeffrey Prang (110,057 votes, 18.45 percent) and Head Deputy DA John Morris (99,379 votes, 16.66 percent).
Amy Carter, a sex crimes prosecutor, defeated Pamala Matsumoto, a litigation attorney, 371,533 votes (61.81 percent) to 229,603 (38.19 percent) in the race for Superior Court, Office 22. Alison Matsumoto Estrada, a government corruption prosecutor, beat Helen Kim, a criminal prosecutor, 339,065 (56.85 percent) to 257,349 (43.15 percent) in the race for Superior Court, Office 76. Ann H. Park, a criminal prosecutor, ran unopposed for Superior Court, Office 82, receiving 463,636 votes.
In the race for sheriff, which became crowded after the resignation of Sheriff Lee Baca, Long Beach Police Chief Jim McDonnell, with 321,377 votes (49.73 percent), appeared to be headed for a runoff with former Undersheriff Paul Tanaka, who got 96,792 (14.98 percent). Finishing out of contention were retired sheriff’s Cmdr. Bob Olmsted (63,453 votes, 9.82 percent), Assistant Sheriff James Hellmold (49,896 votes, 7.72 percent), retired sheriff’s Lt. Patrick Gomez (41,450 votes, 6.41 percent), Assistant Sheriff Todd Rogers (38,750 votes, 16.00 percent), Senior Detective Supervisor Lou Vince (34,576 votes, 5.35 percent). With the other candidates supporting McDonnell, Tanaka faces an uphill battle, but he says that the low voter turnout in the primary, less than 15 percent of eligible voters, means he has an opportunity to reach those who will vote in November.
• Monterey: Andrew Liu, attorney and former prosecutor for the Monterey County and New York district attorneys, was elected to the Superior Court, Office 3, with 23,755 votes (53.50 percent). His opponent was Deputy District Attorney Steven Somers (20,648 votes, 46.50 percent).
• Orange: Superior Court Judge Joanne Motoike, an appointee of Gov. Jerry Brown, was overwhelmingly elected with 211,658 votes (77.5 percent). Challenger Wayne Phillips, a trial lawyer, received 61,396 (22.5 percent).
County Clerk-Recorder Hugh Nguyen, who has been with his department for over 14 years, was re-elected with 175,799 votes (61.4 percent). Also running were businesswoman Monica Maddox (52,682 votes, 18.4 percent), Capistrano Unified School District board member Gary Pritchard (34,508 votes, 12.1 percent), and retired teacher Steve Rocco (23,188 votes, 8.1 percent).
In the Irvine Unified School District, educator and scientist Bob Vu was in third and last place with 3,933 votes (21.3 percent). The winner was businessman and former school board member Ira Glasky (7,965 votes, 43.1 percent), followed by retired teacher Carolyn Inmon (6,582 votes, 35.6 percent).
Michelle Steel, a member of the California Board of Equalization, was elected to the Orange County Board of Supervisors (District 2) with 35,698 votes (47.7 percent). The other candidates were Assemblymember Allan Mansoor of Costa Mesa (17,139 votes, 22.9 percent), Coast Community College District Governing Board member Jim Moreno (15,854 votes, 21.2 percent), and Huntington Beach City Councilmember Joe Carchio (6,220 votes, 8.3 percent).
• San Bernardino: James Na, a board member of the Chino Valley Unified School District, finished third out of four candidates for the Board of Supervisors (District 4) with 2,269 votes (9.56 percent). Headed for a runoff are Rep. Gloria Negrete McLeod (D-Montclair) with 9,929 (41.84 percent) and Assemblymember Curt Hagman (R-Chino Hills) with 9,774 (41.18 percent). Ontario City Councilmember Paul Vincent Avila was in fourth place with 1,761 (7.42 percent).
• San Francisco: Uncontested judicial candidates included Superior Court judges Julie Tang (Office 15), Garrett Wong (Office 18) and Tracie Lynne Brown (Office 23).
• San Joaquin: County Treasurer-Tax Collector Shabbir A. Khan was re-elected without opposition, receiving 40,783 votes.
• San Luis Obispo: Tommy Gong, currently assistant clerk-recorder, was elected county clerk-recorder with 24,008 votes (45.78 percent). Also running were Deputy Clerk-Recorder Amanda King (22,675 votes, 43.23 percent) and business management chief Ann Danko (5,647 votes, 10.77 percent). Gong is also a board member of the Bruce Lee Foundation.
City Races
• Long Beach: In Council District 1, Lena Gonzales, currently field deputy for Vice Mayor Robert Garcia, beat Rev. Misi Tagaloa, pastor of the Second Samoan Congregational United Church of Christ, 1,375 votes (60.4 percent) to 903 (39.6 percent).
• San Diego: In Council District 6, Chris Cate was first with 7,913 votes (47.39 percent), followed by educator Carol Kim (5,185 votes, 31.05 percent). They will face off in November. The other candidates were Human Relations Commissioner Mitz S. Lee (2,087 votes, 12.50 percent), special education assistant Jane Glasson (804 votes, 4.81 percent), and security manager/artillery soldier De Le (709 votes, 4.25 percent).
• San Jose: Vice Mayor Madison Nguyen finished third out of eight candidates for mayor with 26,288 votes (20.24 percent). Santa Clara County Supervisor Dave Cortese with 43,804 (33.72 percent) and City Councilmember Sam Liccardo with 33,470 (25.77 percent) will be in the runoff.
In Council District 1, Assemblymember Paul Fong (D-Cupertino) led six opponents with 3,572 votes (29.05 percent). His opponent in the runoff will be San Jose Neighborhoods Commissioner Charles “Chappie” Jones, who received 2,802 votes (22.79 percent).
In Council District 3, Kathy Yamada Sutherland, former chief of staff to Councilmember Nancy Pyle, finished third out of six candidates with 2,007 votes (22.34 percent). The top two finishers were police officer and teacher Raul Peralez with 2,492 (27.74 percent) and community businessman Don Gagliardi with 2,177 (24.24 percent), who will go to the runoff.
In Council District 7, the top finisher was Tam Nguyen, an attorney and secretary general of the Vietnamese Catholic San Jose Diocese, with 3,241 votes (31.07 percent). He will be in a runoff with Maya Esparza (3,056 votes, 29.30 percent), governing board member of the Franklin-McKinley School District. Also running were Van Le, (2,804 votes, 26.88 percent), trustee of the Eastside Union High School District, and Buu Thai (1,330 votes, 12.75 percent), Franklin-McKinley School District board member.
• Torrance: In the 16-way race for four seats on the City Council, the victors were appointed incumbent Heidi Ann Ashcraft (8,391 votes, 13.32 percent), business manager Tim Goodrich (7,613 votes, 12.08 percent), appointed incumbent Kurt Weideman (7,071 votes, 11.22 percent) and retired police lieutenant Geoffrey Rizzo (6,194 votes, 9.83 percent). The other candidates included registered financial consultant Leilani A. Kimmel-Dagostino, fifth place with 5,393 votes (8.56 percent); business owner and engineer Alex M. See, sixth place with 4,549 votes (7.22 percent); and small business owner Rahmat H. Khan, 12th place with 1971 votes (3.13 percent).
Thank you. The article has been revised and updated.
Rafu Staff you need to make a lot of corrections to the article because in all of the county and municipal races candidates can not win the position they run for unless they win over 50% of the vote. An example is Blong Xiong who finished second and will face Brian Pacheco in the general election in November.
The only exception is Torrance which does not consolidate it’s municipal elections with the November general election and does not have a primary election. It’s municipal election just happens to corresponds with the June primary.