Sheila Kuehl, a former state lawmaker, will succeed Zev Yaroslavsky as LA County Supervisor for the 3rd District when the new term begins in January 2015.
Kuehl won the Board of Supervisors race over former Santa Monica City Council member Bobby Shriver, a member of the Kennedy family.
As votes were tallied in the early morning hours of Wednesday, Kuehl held a steady but narrow lead over Shriver, eventually earning 52.78 percent of votes to Shriver’s 47.22 percent, with 100 percent of precincts reporting by 3:11 a.m. the day after Election Day.
The Malibu Democratic Club officially endorsed Kuehl in July, drawing ire from some members who pulled for Shriver in the race. The disagreements eventually boiled over. Kuehl was also endorsed by the LA County Democratic Club and the LA Times. She was not endorsed by Yaroslavsky, who did not speak out in support of either candidate.
Shriver served on Santa Monica’s City Council from 2004 to 2012. He was endorsed by former Malibu Mayor Pamela Conley Ulich.
Kuehl comes to the Supervisor seat with eight years of experience in California’s State Senate and six years of experience in California’s State Assembly.
McDonnell wins County Sheriff
Long Beach Police Chief Jim McDonnell won the race for L.A. County Sheriff in a landslide victory.
McDonnell finished with about 75 percent of the vote, while former County Undersheriff Paul Tanaka came in with just over 25 percent.
About 23 percent of eligible precincts had reported as of press time. McDonnell tallied approximately 271,576 votes while Tanaka received 91,654.
Lieu leads race for Waxman’s seat
In another race that was too close to call as of press time, State Sen. Ted Lieu held a decently sized lead over Republican challenger Elan Carr. Both are vying to replace the long-serving Rep. Henry Waxman in the U.S. House of Representatives for a large west side district that includes Malibu and Santa Monica.
As of press time, Lieu led with 53.1 percent of the vote (24,680) and Carr had 46.9 percent (21,808).
Gov. Brown nabs easy, historic win
In other unsurprising results, Gov. Jerry Brown ran away with the gubernatorial seat for a record fourth term as California governor, the Associated Press reported.
He served his first two terms in the 1970s before winning again in 2010. In the last four years, he has helped financially push California out of the red and into the black.
“In California, we are going to go in, I think, a very progressive but fiscally responsible direction,” Brown told the Los Angeles Times.
Brown, 76, was challenged by Republican newcomer Neel Kashkari.
Newsom and Harris are re-elected
Highly favored incumbents Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom and Attorney General Kamala Harris were each easily re-elected to their posts as well. Newsom had tallied more than 60 percent of the vote while Republican challenger Ron Nehring finished with 38 percent.
Incumbent Harris had posted similar totals as of press time, with 63 percent of the vote. Her challenger, attorney Ronald Gold, had 37 percent of the vote.
Padilla wins secretary of state
Current State Sen. Alex Padilla beat out Republican and Pepperdine professor Pete Peterson for secretary of state. Padilla received 59 percent of the vote as of press time, while Peterson received 41 percent.
State water bond passes
A bond measure authorizing spending more than $7 billion in spending on water projects was approved by California voters, according to the Associated Press.
The measure, Proposition 1, gives California legislators the authority to borrow $7.12 billion that will be paid back using state budget funds over an estimated 40 years at a rate of $360 million annually.