The Jovanka Beckles for for State Assembly District 15 campaign sent this statement Sunday evening. This, in the wake of Friday’s reports that put the Richmond Councilmember 284 votes over her challenger for the second position behind top-vote-getter Buffy Wicks in the top-two race, Oakland District One Councilmember Dan Kalb. Here’s the statement:
Richmond City Council member Jovanka Beckles, primary election candidate for State Assembly District 15, today stated that she is hopeful that her small lead in the contest for second place will hold. She currently has a 284-vote lead over Oakland City Councilperson Dan Kalb.
With 80,273 votes cast in the race, Jovanka has 12,135 (15.1%) and Dan Kalb has 11,851 (14.8%). Her campaign estimates that approximately 26,000 ballots remain to be counted, which would imply that she and Kalb will each still gain in the neighborhood of 3,900 votes.
On Friday, Jovanka addressed her campaign supporters and opponents, stating
I am gratified that the candidates presented voters with a substantive contest and I thank my supporters for their hard and successful work. Dan Kalb has my highest respect and I’m sure that whether he or I prove to be the second-highest vote-getter in the next few weeks, the choice facing voters in the fall will be clear.
The top vote-getter, Buffy Wicks, currently holds 31.5% of the total vote; the other candidates divide the remaining 68.5%.
The Beckles corporate-money-free campaign had the highest proportion of any candidate of small contributions and these were overwhelmingly from within Assembly District 15. Its slender financing underpinned a large volunteer canvassing and phone-banking operation.
Buffy Wicks’s campaign was largely financed by donations from outside of the District, by large donors, and supplemented with almost $600,000 in expenditures by the independent political action committees of Govern for California and the California Dental Association.
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