Too close to call: Three candidates separated by 800 votes in 34th Assembly District race

Early Wednesday morning, about 800 votes separated the top three candidates in the newly drawn 34th Assembly District race, meaning it might take weeks to find out the top two finishers who move on to the November general election.

With just under 50% of the estimated vote counted, Republican Assemblyman incumbent Thurston "Smitty" Smith and Republican Assemblyman Tom Lackey are tied with 29.9% of the vote with former Victorville Councilwoman Rita Ramirez Dean close behind with 27.8% of the vote.

Smith represented the 33rd District and Lackey represented District 36 before the district boundaries were redrawn after the 2020 Census.

The top two finishers will face off against each other in the November general election.  Provisional and late mailed ballots are still to be counted, so a final result in the race may take several weeks.

Election observers predicted Lackey and Smith would face off against each other in the November election.

In March 2021, the Victorville City Council voted to remove Ramirez from her seat after they reportedly found that she had not lived in the city for more than half a year.

During that time, City Attorney Andre de Bortnowsky presented a report in which he said Ramirez had been receiving city mail and agendas at her home in Twentynine Palms for at least nine months.

Ramirez-Dean is a retired professor.

Many politically-active residents of the High Desert have taken a specific liking to Smith for his local presence and efforts to push for action on issues relevant to their communities.

Smith appeared last month as the special guest on Real Talk Barstow, a newly-launched weekly Facebook stream focused on Barstow's local politics that's run by local residents and activists John "Tex" Williams and Leonard Williams.

Residents in unincorporated Lucerne Valley such as Chuck Bell, president of the Lucerne Valley Economic Development Association, have praised Smith for making personal efforts at the state level to combat the proliferation of illegal cannabis grows in their sparsely-populated, low-water community. Assembly Bill 1599, co-authored by Smith along with 24 Republican state lawmakers, sought to repeal the decriminalization of various forms of theft in a 2014 ballot measure, Proposition 47, though this bill failed last month in the Assembly committee.

Many registered voters believed Smith and Lackey would have a photo finish in the Primary Election, which has played out.

The 34 District includes Apple Valley, California City, Barstow, Big Bear Lake, Twentynine Palms, and parts of Hesperia, Highland, Lancaster, Palmdale, parts Victorville, and an uninhabited portion of Adelanto.

The redrawn 33rd District now covers Tulare and Kings counties and a portion of Fresno County. The former District 33 mostly covered the High Desert region.

39th Assembly District 

In the Assembly District 39 race, Republican Paul Andre Marsh will likely face Democrat Juan Carrillo in the November election.

With 25% of the estimated vote counted Wednesday morning, Marsh and Carillo have double-digit leads for the top two spots in the November general election.

The district is rated to lean Democrat by political observers. In the primary, the three Democrats on the ballot split 61% of the vote while Republican Marsh garnered 38.5% of the votes, indicating an uphill battle to win the general election.

The 39th District includes portions of Adelanto, Hesperia, Lancaster, Palmdale, and parts of Victorville.

Assembly District 41 

Incumbent Democrat Chris Holden is running unopposed in District 41, which includes portions of Oak Hills, Hesperia and all of Phelan, Pinon Hills and Wrightwood.

Holden earned 97.755 or 4,788 votes, while write-in candidate Michael McMahon picked up 2.23% or 109 votes.

Before the boundary change, the 41st District encompassed the northern San Gabriel Valley and was centered in Pasadena.

Holden has a lifetime of experience in public service and business garnered during his many years on the Pasadena City Council and the Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport Authority.

Updates by the Registrar of Voters Office will be posted on their website every two hours until all polling place ballots have been counted.

Daily Press reporter Rene Ray De La Cruz may be reached at 760-951-6227 or RDeLaCruz@VVDailyPress.com. Follow him on Twitter @DP_ReneDeLaCruz

This article originally appeared on Victorville Daily Press: CA election results: Three candidates separated by 800 votes