Fitzgerald Leads Villines in Tight GOP Contest for Insurance Commissioner
With all precincts reporting, Department of Insurance attorney Brian Fitzgerald (R) appears to have defeated Assembly member Mike Villines (R-Clovis) to secure the Republican nomination for state insurance commissioner, the Sacramento Bee reports.
As of Wednesday, Fitzgerald led Villines by 11,204 votes, or less than one percentage point.
Thousands of absentee and provisional ballots remain uncounted, meaning that it could take weeks to determine the final outcome of the race.
According to a Villines spokesperson, the Assembly member will not concede until all of the votes are counted (Sanders, Sacramento Bee, 6/10).
Fitzgerald spent less than $5,000 on his campaign, while Villines had a $1.1 million campaign fund (Sanders, "Capitol Alert," Sacramento Bee, 6/9).
General Election
The winner of the GOP race will face Democratic nominee Assembly member Dave Jones (Sacramento) in November's general election (Goldmacher, Los Angeles Times, 6/10).
Minor party candidates vying for the insurance commissioner seat include:
- William Balderston of the Green Party;
- Richard Bronstein of the Libertarian Party;
- Dina Padilla of the Peace and Freedom Party; and
- Clay Pedersen of the American Independent Party (Sacramento Business Journal, 6/8).