WEBER LIKELY WINNER
La Mesa Councilwoman Dr. Akilah Weber appears likely to take the 79th Assembly District seat.
“These results are staggering. I am deeply honored and humbled by the faith that the voters have placed in me ...” Dr. Akilah Weber •w ho finished ahead of four other candidates in special election for Assembly seat
La Mesa Councilwoman Dr. Akilah Weber appears likely to take the 79th Assembly District seat after gaining a slim majority in the special primary election held Tuesday.
If her lead of 52 percent of the votes holds after all remaining mail-in ballots and provisional ballots are counted, then Weber wins the seat her mother, Shirley Weber, held for a decade before recently becoming California’s secretary of state.
By midnight Tuesday, with all precincts counted and more than 55,000 early, mail-in and in-person votes cast, Akilah Weber held a majority with 28,834 votes.
Republican business owner Marco Contreras was in second place, with about 33 percent of the vote. La
bor organizer Leticia Munguia held 8 percent, teacher Shane Parmely had 5 percent, and community organizer Aeiramique Glass Blake gained just over 1 percent.
The 79th District includes parts of Southeast San Diego, Bonita, Chula Vista, La Mesa, Lemon Grove and National City.
In total, the county mailed out more than 300,000 ballots to voters in the district. As of midnight Tuesday a fraction of them — 55,578 ballots — had been cast and counted. The overwhelming majority were delivered by mail; only 1,648 ballots were cast in person.
In addition to the ballots tallied Tuesday night, the registrar expects about 9,500 more ballots will be counted, bringing the estimated total of votes to about 65,000, said Antonia Hutzell, a spokeswoman for the registrar of voters. That would yield a turnout of nearly 22 percent.
Special elections typically draw fewer voters than general elections. The registrar’s office had expected a 20 percent to 25 percent voter turnout, Hutzell said.
The votes still to be counted include provisional
ballots, those dropped off at polling places on Election Day, and mailed ballots postmarked by Election Day and received at the registrar’s office by Friday.
The registrar will certify the election on April 15, Hutzell said.
If no candidate receives a majority of votes, the race goes to a runoff between the top two vote-getters. However, if a candidate earns a majority — defined as 50 percent plus one vote — they win outright. Weber’s preliminary lead means she’s likely to take the seat without the need for a runoff.
“These results are staggering,” Weber said in a text message Tuesday. “I am deeply honored and humbled by the faith that the voters
have placed in me. My campaign is focused on one mission: creating healthier communities for everyone who lives and works in the 79th District. While there are still votes to count, I am eager to start that work restoring economic prosperity, expanding high quality health care, investing in education, and protecting our environment.”
Because she is close to the 50 percent threshold, to maintain her lead Weber must win thousands of the remaining votes to avoid a runoff, an outcome that appears likely but is not certain.
Other recent local races have flipped after early election night leads eroded in the final vote count.
In the general election last fall, San Diego County Supervisor Joel Anderson overcame an Election Day deficit of more than 4,000 votes to defeat fellow Republican and Poway Mayor Steve Vaus. Anderson won the county Board of Supervisors District 2 by 282 votes, or less than 0.1 percent of votes cast.
Two years earlier, Escondido Mayor Paul “Mac” McNamara defeated two-time incumbent Mayor Sam Abed with a final lead of almost 52 percent to Abed’s 48 percent — a reversal of early election returns which showed Abed winning by 51 percent to McNamara’s 49 percent.
In this assembly race Contreras, the second-place candidate, has not discounted the possibility of a similar turnaround as final returns are counted.
“We want to thank all of our supporters and our voters,” Contreras said in a statement. “We know a lot of them waited until Election Day to vote, and we’re hopeful we’ll carry more of the vote as it is counted over the coming days.”
Weber, an obstetrician/ gynecologist, entered election day with a strong fundraising advantage over her opponents. She collected more than $380,000 in her candidate account, while a political committee supporting her raised $545,000.
Contreras, the only other candidate to clear six figures, raised about $146,000 in his candidate fund. Among the other three Democrats running, Munguia raised just over $74,000, Parmely brought in nearly $23,000, and Blake trailed with $6,320.
Munguia said Wednesday that, while the election didn’t turn out as she had hoped, she plans to work with Weber on priorities for the district.
“I offer my sincerest congratulations to Dr. Akilah Weber on her victory last night, which should be a point of pride for all who call our region home,” Munguia said in an e-mail. “I wish her luck and pledge my support to work together in any way that we can, as we defeat the pandemic and work to build a more equitable and inclusive society for all people.”