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All You Need To Know: California Races

Jeremy Fuster |
November 4, 2014 | 10:06 p.m. PST

Staff Reporter

Jerry Brown is about to embark on his fourth and final term as California's governor. (Wikimedia Commons
Jerry Brown is about to embark on his fourth and final term as California's governor. (Wikimedia Commons
Here are the current updates on the election races and proposition votes in California:

Governor: Democrat Jerry Brown is set to be elected to an unprecedented fourth term as Governor of California. With 15 percent of precincts reporting, Brown has 57% of the vote. Kashkari has already formally conceded the race.

The victory, while widely expected, is a historic achievement to add to Brown's wild career. He originally served as governor from 1974-1982 before making several unsuccessful bids at a career in Washington. In 1998, he returned to the California political stage as mayor of Oakland before becoming attorney general in 2006 and, finally, reaching a third term as governor in 2010.

Newsom and Harris Roll: While the national storyline has been the Democrats falling out of power on Capitol Hill, California continues to be a blue-state stronghold. Democrats Gavin Newsom and Kamala Harris are projected to hold on to their respective positions as Lieutenant Governor and Attorney General, and both are considered to be possible candidates for a 2018 gubernatorial campaign.

READ MORE: All You Need To Know: California Propositions

New Sheriff In Town: Long Beach police Chief Jim McDonnell has been elected the new L.A. County Sheriff, defeating retired L.A. Undersheriff Paul Tanaka in a landslide vote. McDonnell comes in during a very turbulent time for the LASD, which has come under scrutiny following allegations of abuse of inmates by deputies at Men's Central Jail. The controversy caused McDonnell's predecessor, four-term sheriff Lee Baca, to step down amid a federal probe of the department that included Tanaka.

Waxman's Replacement: Arguably the biggest congressional race in California is in the 33rd District, which is being vacated by longtime Democratic Congressman Henry Waxman after almost 40 years of service. State Senator Ted Lieu won the race over Republican gang prosecutor Elan Carr, 58 to 42 percent. Lieu's toughest hurdle to reach this point was back in June, when he narrowly defeated former L.A. mayoral candidate Wendy Greuel in the Democratic primary.

Best of the Rest:  The race between Democrat Alex Padilla and Republican Pete Peterson for Secretary of State was one of the narrowest this year, but Padilla came out as the winner with 53 percent of the vote.

The race for Superintendent of Public Instruction was even narrower, but after a campaign that spent tens of millions of dollars, incumbent Tom Torlakson defeated challenger Marshall Tuck with a 52 percent share. Torlakson's victory is also a victory for the California Teachers Association, which backed the Superintendent amid accusations from Tuck that he was "a wholly owned subsidiary of the CTA" and calls for the state education system to be taken out of the hands of traditional educational unions.

Outgoing Controller John Chiang will be trading one Sacramento job for another, as he has now been elected to be the next State Treasurer, defeating Republican Greg Conlon with nearly 58 percent of the vote.

Reach Jeremy Fuster here or on Twitter.



 

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