Barring some sort of massive (ahem) surge of democrat ballots – Hilton and Pratt make their respective runoffs. This gives a Republican Governor Candidate for an open Governor Seat for the first time since Prop 14 passed, and a viable Republican Mayor of LA Candidate since Richard Riordan. Hilton wasn’t my guy – but I’ll take it.

There were a lot of interesting to say the least results last night from the California Primary Elections.

Let’s start with Placer County –

As it stands right now – Let ‘Em Out Leon Dixson is beating Rocklin Councilmember Dave Bass 57-42, after outspending him in my estimation 2.5-1 on the aggregate. This Judge race drew in a ton of outside money. It also led to some exposure of a network designed to support appointed judges regardless of merit. If the only thing this judge race accomplished was exposure of the strike force and the network, it was worth it.

Placer County Supervisor Shanti Landon is coasting to Re-Election 71-28 over Lincoln Councilmember Holly Andreatta. The last time Sup District 2 saw anything like this was all the way back in 2006 when then Supervisor Robert Weygandt beat Jerry Simmons 70.26 – 29.41. Landon’s final margin won’t be known for a few weeks. In order to lose by such a margin, it requires a candidate to have the absolute wrong issue set plus a campaign that alienated voters. It appears both were at play in this election as your intrepid blogger received dozens of reports from the field that people simply wanted this campaign to be over – and over it is.

Statewide –

As of the writing of this blog, Steve Hilton is in first place in the California Jungle Primary some 8% ahead of Tom Steyer who is in a distant third. While it is possible that Xavier Becerra overtakes Hilton for first as he is only 250,000 votes behind (about 2.3%), Steyer covering nearly 8% seems impossible right? Just have to count those mail ballots that you can’t verify signatures on anymore…

LG: Fiona Ma vs Gloria Romero – should be interesting, but Ma of course is a prohibitive favorite. Gloria Romero was a Democrat when in the legislature, years later, she ran for LG as a Republican.

Treasurer: Jennifer Hawks makes the runoff against gazillionaire heiress sitting LG Eleni Kolonakis. This saves the GOP the embarrassment of nominating a Nazi ahem Groyper.

Insurance Commissioner – sadly, this is going to be a D vs D race, for an office that desperately needed a change from the status quo.

District Races:

Congress D1: James Gallagher performed well and illustrated that Mike McGuire is a terrible candidate and he, despite the jerked off district lines represents that district. Gallagher has a difficult battle in November

Congress D3: Robb Tucker makes the runoff as an underdog for sure, but he crushed Chris Bish and for that alone he deserves a medal.

Congress D6: Could the pipe dream become reality? Could Republican Turncoat Kevin Kiley look like a Genius and draw a Republican runoff opponent? A man I believe to be truly psycho with his obsessive need to force vaccinations on everyone including draconian punishments for not doing so is in Third Place. However, he is only trailing the Second Place Candidate by 1100 votes or 1% and it is believed there are a glut of outstanding Dem ballots outstanding in this heavily dem district. An extremist like Richard Pan can only win a heavy dem district in my opinion.

Congress D11: A man I believe to be a pedophile, who has authored several bills as a state legislator making having sex with minors less and less of a crime (Scott Weiner, what a name) is in first place over Nancy Pelosi’s pick. Pelosi’s pick is all but assured to make the runoff with Weiner. I’ve never rooted for a flaming leftist in my life. I will take the commie-pinko Connie Chan over the Pedophile please. (I need to take a shower now)

Congress D35: Mike Cargile, the serial candidate is always entertaining to watch. The fact that he makes Norma Torres spend tons of money against him is hysterically funny to me. It’s a D+20 district, but Cargile is only down 13 right now. LOL

Congress D40: Unbelievable, Young Kim and Ken Calvert are headed to the runoff. This is going to be a multi-million dollar bloodbath. WOW. (Kim voted to Impeach Trump)

Congress D47 and D48: It looks like both of these were jerked off to be dem seats but both could be interesting in the fall. Jenny Rae LeRoux can be a formidable candidate and Jim Desmond looks really good on paper – will either of those two’s credentials on paper translate in the fall? Or will the numbers simply carry the district for the chosen DCCC Cylon Robots?

State Senate District 4: Marie Alvarado Gil is in Third Place and likely will not recover. This tells me two things, one she could not raise enough money to compete with the Duarte name and connections and two, no one believed her conversion to Republican was real. Stop there. It is pretty much that simple. I know that Alvarado-Gil had been talked to several times prior to her actual switch and may well have been more believable had she done it sooner than she did. We will never know. Alexandra Duarte is poised to become the next State Senator from SD-04. (and the margin is not close)

SD-12: Fascinating Matchup, Republican Nathan Masgig will finally get a higher office as he draws a Libertarian in the runoff!

SD-16: Incumbent Dem Melissa Hurtado has some issues and is performing poorly. This district is going to be ground zero in the fall for the Republicans, especially with what happened in SD-40

SD-22: Mike Netter pulled 39% in this insanely lopsided district. If he can do this or better in the fall, he should write a field manual about how to campaign in an extreme left wing area.

SD-24: G Rick Marshall, one of my favorite Right Wing Wackos going back almost 30 years in CRA is in First. He will get the privilege of losing by 40% in the fall. But well done Rick, you get some delegate appointments for the CAGOP!

SD-38: This is odd, It only shows the difference at 1.2% at the moment. Could this district sneak it’s way onto the radar or is this an aberration?

SD-40: This is proof that Carl DeMaio is indeed a force. I tip my cap to the man. He took on the legislative caucus and almost singlehandedly got Kristie Bruce-Lane into the SD-40 Runoff over Ed Musgrove. So, can Carl keep his impulsiveness in check long enough to work with the legislative caucus to form the coalition necessary to elect Lane to replace Brian Jones? There is no reason why the professionals and the adults in the legislature won’t be interested in helping keep SD40 red. Kristie Bruce-Lane was once a top recruit for Assembly and lost. Has she learned anything from that defeat? There are a lot of questions but this is a race to watch – the dems will be all over this district too

AD-01: Heather Hadwick is the undisputed Political MMA Champion of the North State. She currently sits at 50.4% of the vote in a 3-way race. Darin Hale, who has been ripped on this blog – a councilmember from Anderson CA – launched an insane bid from the abyss against her and sits at 13%. The dems filed a candidate who is getting 36% thusly sending Hale back to the unemployment line. It is time for my friends in Shasta County to settle the F down and make peace, Heather is going to represent you for the next decade. Please try to work with her, it will go a lot better.

AD-03: Dom Belza got less than 50%. He is going to draw Jamie Johansson in an R vs R runoff in the fall. The third leg was Andrew Coolidge. Belza has the institutional support. Johansson has LaMalfa and the Ranchers. As an aside, I drove through some of this district on a recent business trip I can say that Belza’s 4×8 Signs looked fantastic and Johansson’s looked plain. While consultants bag on signs in general, in a rural district, they matter and it could well be that the dramatic difference in the appearance of the road signs was a microcosm of the race itself as Belza sits around 45.5% to Johansson just short of 30. Your intrepid blogger has not endorsed and does not anticipate endorsing.

AD-05: Joe Patterson – easily the most Conservative member of the Assembly Republican Caucus is winning by over 20% with little of no effort. Some of the videos of him talking about the life issue are epic, especially reflected against some of the absolutely insane procedures of the California State Government.

AD-07: Josh Hoover – this is supposed to be Dem Leaning, but you can’t tell from Hoover’s performance. Well done, sir. Republicans across the country that are in blue districts need to look at the masterclass in how to govern and get elected in a light blue district from what this guy is doing. The dems will likely spend elsewhere…

AD-09: Heath Flora / Democrat / Jim Douchemaker Shoemaker – As of the typing of this blog, something like 400 votes separate the democrat (who is in second) and Douchemaker who is in third. While I am not a charter member of the Heath Flora fan club, I have over 25 years of knowing the current/former Truck Driver who lives/lived in a double-wide (and that’s just the beginning) that if this ends up being a Flora vs Douchemaker runoff, things could get really insane quickly. Flora became vulnerable because he spent a ton of time out of the district fundraising – in a future post I will outline what the legislative caucuses did, but they have raised a staggering amount of money. (Think north of $9 Million so far) Flora is also looking for his last term in office. With the super low turnout in AD09, Douchemaker who had limited resources had magnified impact. I did not write about this race out of respect for friends on the ground there that supported him – he had some significant support but not much moolah to go with it. I just didn’t want people to forget or have any questions in their minds about how I felt because sometimes I struggle with words…

AD-36: Jeff Gonzalez: He sits at 46.7% with the dems spending an unreal amount of money there. The district is D+8ish… and centered around Imperial County. He has a fight on his hands. Gonzalez was the surprise of 2024.

AD-47: Greg Wallis: Similar to the Gonzalez situation, Wallis sits at 49.5% again with a ton of dem money spent. Wallis is seeking his third term in this D+8ish district that includes Palm Springs.

If you look at the Governor’s race map, you will see that Chad Bianco underperformed in his home county of Riverside – both AD-36 and AD-47 have a ton of exposure to Riverside County. The “Bianco Effect” won’t be there this fall.

AD-58: The Dems put double-DUI Clarissa Cervantes back on the ballot against Leticia Castillo. The accidental assemblywoman is leading by .4%. LOL. Maybe try AA Clarissa. (The district is supposed to be safe D)

AD-70: Tri Ta. 5 Letters. Bad Ass Assemblyman. It takes more letters to give him a label than to type his name.

AD-71: Kate Sanchez. Wow has she done a great job. I worked for her opponent and this is one of those times where I have to just stop and salute the winner, again. Several more terms await her

AD-72: Gracie Van Der Mark: when the OC Register trashed her, I knew she must be a great candidate. When I looked at the field and saw Matthew Harper, as one of her opponents, I knew that she was the only choice for AD-72. While I once regarded Matt, as he has gotten older he’s left a trail behind him. An interesting side note – the Dem in the race is a former NFL punter who was such a loudmouth lefty that even the woke NFL would not touch him after some point. My guess is had he been able to keep a sock in it, he might still be punting. In any event, Gracie will punt him in November.

AD-74: Laurie Davies leads by 12. This used to be considered a competitive district, well done Laurie. (Note: when your intrepid blogger helped end the career of Bill Brough, Davies defeated him in the primary)

AD-75: Carl DeMaio, leads by 25. This guy is one of the biggest winners if not the biggest on the R side from last night’s primary.