An election day of landslide winners

Alicia Robinson

Tuesday’s election wasn’t much of a cliffhanger for anyone except

watchers of Proposition 55, the $12.3 billion bond issue for the

state’s education facilities.

For most of the other items on the ballot, the earliest returns

were borne out in the final results. In the six-way GOP race in the

70th Assembly District, Chuck DeVore took an early lead and held it,

finishing with 46.3% of the total, according to final results from

the Orange County Registrar of Voters.

Coming in second was Cristi Cristich, who snagged 26.5% of the

votes cast. The remainder of votes was divided among Don Wagner, who

took 14.7% of the vote; Marianne Zippi, with 8.3%; Long K. Pham, who

gained 3.1%; and Chonchol Gupta, who finished with 1% of votes cast.

DeVore was pleased with his victory in what he said was

essentially a two-person race between him and Cristich.

“They were all worthy opponents,” he said. “We just focused all of

our effort on Ms. Cristich and she on me, so I think both of us had

opinion polls that showed we were each other’s main rival.”

Cristich did not return a call for comment.

Already beginning the transition toward working full-time as a

legislator, DeVore will be shrinking his role at defense consulting

firm SM&A;, where he has worked for 12 years.

He headed to Sacramento Wednesday to meet with state Republican

officials. Assuming he wins the general election, his first priority

will be improving the state’s business climate, he said.

In the 68th Assembly District race to succeed termed-out

Assemblyman Ken Maddox, Garden Grove City Councilman Van Tran took

56.3% of the Republican vote, defeating his council colleague Mark

Leyes, who netted 43.7%.

If he wins the heavily Republican district as predicted in

November, Tran will become the first Vietnamese American in the

country to win election to a state legislature, something that has

brought him a rush of media attention.

“It is a big responsibility, but more importantly I want to do my

job while representing all citizens of the 68th Assembly District,”

Tran said.

Leyes said he was disappointed with the outcome, but thankful for

the community support he received during his campaign.

“I’m not going to be a sore loser about any of this,” Leyes said.

The two men will continue to serve on city council together after

a sometimes-divisive campaign, but they expected it to go smoothly.

“The campaign’s over, so there shouldn’t be any lingering

animosity or bad feelings,” Tran said.

Rep. Dana Rohrabacher easily bested GOP challenger and former Rep.

Bob Dornan, taking 83.2% of the vote to Dornan’s 16.8%.

In the Democratic primary for Rohrabacher’s 46th Congressional

District seat, Jim Brandt won handily with 49.9% of the votes cast,

while Tan D. Nguyen took 32.8% and Paul C. Wilkins grabbed 17.3% of

the vote.