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.
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