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From the Associated Press: San Joaquin Valley Republican Vince Fong was on the ballot this fall for an Assembly race, but he didn’t want to win it. After all, he left that job for Congress earlier this year, and he planned to stay in the nation’s capital.
He even went so far as to endorse the Bakersfield city councilmember who was listed as running against him on the November ballot.
But voters chose Fong anyway for the Assembly. They chose him again for Congress, too, since he was listed on the same ballot twice. And they did so overwhelmingly. By last count, Fong had more than 33,000 votes over fellow Republican Ken Weir for the Assembly seat.
Now, since Fong “won” his Assembly race, Kern and Tulare County taxpayers in Assembly District 32 will end up paying hundreds of thousands of dollars for a special election to fill the seat that Fong doesn’t want any more.
The report explains that the confusion all started when former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy resigned last winter and Fong, who had been a state Assemblymember since 2016, decided to run for his seat. A convoluted gap in state law caused problems with the whole process.
Fong had already filed paperwork for the March primary to run for re-election as an Assemblymember, and the law did not provide a process for him to withdraw from that race.
Democratic California Secretary of State Shirley Weber tried to block Fong from running for McCarthy’s seat, but a judge overruled her, saying state law did not prohibit a candidate from running in two races simultaneously.
Despite Fong endorsing Weir for the Assembly seat, voters didn’t get the message, and instead supported Fong for both seats.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom will now have to call a special election to settle the matter of the state Assembly seat.
Legislation has also been passed in California which creates a process that allows a candidate to officially withdraw from one race to run in another, and also prohibits one candidate from seeking two seats simultaneously, which will prevent such an incident from a happening again.
Vince Fong won his seat in Congress. He might win his Assembly seat, too. So what now? https://t.co/EIwQUJFif1
— KVPR (@KVPR) November 9, 2024
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