Carrillo setting the pace in race for new District 39 seat

Palmdale City Councilman Juan Carrillo was headed toward victory in the race to represent Assembly District 39, according to early election results, on Tuesday.

Carrillo, a Palmdale Democrat, was leading, with only mail-in ballots counted, with 15,741 votes, or 60.5% of the votes cast, according to the California Secretary of State’s office.

Carrillo’s challenger, Republican Paul Andre Marsh, a Victorville community services liaison, had collected 10,265 votes, or 39.5%.

The decennial redistricting cleaved the Antelope Valley’s representation in the state Assembly in half, with two districts now representing the area instead of one. The new boundaries divide the Valley into west and east areas, splitting the region’s two largest cities nearly in half.

The dividing line through the cities runs from roughly Pearblossom Highway north along Sierra Highway to Columbia Way (Avenue M), where it jogs west to 20th Street West until Avenue H. At Avenue H, the line moves east to Sierra Highway, where it runs north to the Kern County line.

The 39th Assembly District includes the eastern portion of Palmdale, along with the communities of Littlerock, Lake Los Angeles and Sun Village, stretching into San Bernardino County, to include Adelanto and Victorville. The southern border encompasses Hesperia and then runs just south of State Route 138. The northern border is the Kern County line.