Four Democrats are leading the races to represent SLO County in state and national offices: Dawn Addis, top left, in Assembly District 30; Gregg Hart, bottom left, in Assembly Districdt 37; Jimmy Panetta, top right, in congressional District 19; and Salud Carbajal, bottom right, in congressional District 24.
Courtesy photos
More than a week after Election Day, the California Secretary of State’s Office is still tallying up results from mail-in ballots for the primary election. But the races to represent San Luis Obispo County in the State Assembly and Congress are looking similar to election night — with Democratic candidates maintaining their leads across the board.
The top two vote-getters for seats on State Assembly and Congress will advance to the general election in November, where voters will decide who wins the office.
The Secretary of State’s Office will officially certify the election results by July 15, according to its website.
Here’s a look at how the races stand:
Running for the 30th District state Assembly seat in 2022 are, clockwise from top left: Morro Bay Councilmember Dawn Addis, Seaside Councilmember Jon Wizard, Cal Poly student John Drake, director of operations at the Monterey County Business Council Zoë G. Carter, and Vicki Nohrden, who ran for state Senate in 2020.
California State Assembly: Districts 30 and 37
As of Wednesday afternoon, the front-runners in races to represent San Luis Obispo County on the California State Assembly were holding onto their leads.
For this vote, SLO County is now split into two Assembly districts — with the majority in 30, which also includes parts of Monterey and Santa Cruz County, and Nipomo in 37 to the south.
Democrat Dawn Addis led the District 30 race on election night and continues to hold the top position with 42.7% of the vote — dropping by only 1% from election night, according to the Secretary of State Office’s most recent ballot count.
Republican Vicki Nohrden maintained her second-place position with 33.7% of the vote.
As the top two finishers, the candidates will compete for the seat in the November general election.
The lineup for the rest of the candidates didn’t budge either on Wednesday. Jon Wizard held third place with 11.1% of the vote, Zoë Carter followed with 8.8% and John Drake with 3.6%, according to the Secretary of State’s Office.
Across Santa Cruz, Monterey and San Luis Obispo counties, Addis performed best in her home county with 44.1% of the vote, but she’s still pulling better than 40% in all three, according to Wednesday’s ballot-count update.
Nohrden has also performed best in SLO County vs. the other two, earning 39.5% of the vote here compared with 31% of the vote in Monterey County and 22.7 in Santa Cruz County.
Unlike the district-wide results, Carter beat Wizard in SLO County, taking home 7.3% of the vote to Wizard’s 5.8%. John Drake trailed with 3.3% of the vote in the county, the Secretary of State’s Office reported.
Running for the 37th District state Assembly seat in 2022 are, from left, Santa Barbara County Supervisor Gregg Hart, Santa Maria small-businessman Mike Stoker and Goleta writer Bruce Wallach (not pictured).
The two-year seat for District 37 was also on the ballot — with three candidates competing to represent Santa Barbara County and Nipomo.
Democrat Gregg Hart kept his lead on Wednesday with 58.9% of the vote. He’ll compete in the general election against Republican Mike Stoker, who had 38% of the vote on Wednesday. Bruce Wallach trailed with 3.6% of the vote, according to the most recent ballot count.
Stoker, the Republican candidate, is actually faring much better in San Luis Obispo County — taking the lead with 48.3% of the vote. Hart, a Democrat, followed close behind with 46.7%. Wallace trailed with 5% of the vote in the County.
Hart, however, is leading by a landslide in Santa Barbara County, where he holds 59.8% of the vote. Stoker and Wallach followed with 37% and 3.2%, respectively.
U.S. House of Representatives: Districts 19 and 24
With the re-drawn district map, two Congress members will represent SLO County instead of one, and two Central Coast congressmen are in line to defend their seats in November.
The 24th Congressional District used to include all of SLO County. The new boundaries, however, moved northern cities such as Paso Robles and Atascadero into the new District 19, while the rest of the county remains in District 24.
Incumbent Rep. Salud Carbajal has maintained a 62% lead in the race to represent District 24 — losing only 0.7% of the vote as of a Tuesday night ballot count from the Secretary of State’s Office. Republican Brad Allen followed with 29.6%, and he will compete with Carbajal for the seat during the November general election.
Michele R. Weslander Quaid and Jeff Frankenfiled trailed with 7% and 1.5% of the vote, respectively.
Carbajal did well in San Luis Obispo County, with 63.6% of the county’s vote. Allen performed similarly here as he did in the rest of the district, picking up 29.9% of the local vote. Quaid fared worse in SLO County with 5.5% of the vote, and Frankenfield took 1% of the county’s vote.
San Luis Obispo County is now represented by two congressional districts. Running for District 24 in 2022 are, top from left, Rep. Salud Carbajal, Jeff Frankenfield, Michele R. Weslander Quaid and Brad Allen (not pictured). Running for District 19 are, bottom from left, Rep. Jimmy Panetta, Dalila Epperson, Jeff Gorman and Douglas Deitch.
For District 19, incumbent Rep. Jimmy Panetta was ahead with 68.5% of the vote, followed by Republican talk show host and small business owner Jeff Gorman with 22.7%. Trailing them were Dalila Epperson with 6.4% and Douglas Deitch with 3%.
In San Luis Obispo County, Panetta’s lead was noticeably smaller, at 48.9% of the vote, according to the Secretary of State’s Office most recent ballot count report.
Gorman followed Pannetta with 40.2% of the SLO County vote.
Panetta and Gorman will face off for the seat in the November general election.
This story was originally published June 17, 2022 at 9:00 AM.
Stephanie Zappelli is the environment and immigration reporter for The Tribune. Born and raised in San Diego, they graduated from Cal Poly with a journalism degree. When not writing, they enjoy playing guitar, reading and exploring the outdoors.
