This update was posted to SanJoseInside at 7:30pm, June 3.
Republican Steve Hilton led in the first count of California votes for governor Tuesday, lost and regained the top position about an hour later, then continued to widen his slim lead nearly 24 hours after polls closed.
California elections officials reported they had completed counting more than half the ballots and estimated another 4 million remained to be tabulated. The elections office was expected to provide a report on the remaining ballots on Thursday.
In the latest count, Hilton and Democrat Xavier Becerra maintained a solid, but not insurmountable margin over Democrat Tom Steyer for the top two spots. The top two finishers in the primary advance to a November runoff for governor.
Nearly 108,000 votes separated the top two candidates from each other, while Steyer was nearly 300,000 votes behind.
That is the gap that ballot watchers will focus on as the millions of ballots, most cast by mail, are counted over the next several days. Elections officials estimated that 55% of this year’s ballots have been counted.
California’s top-two voting rule in effect since 2010 means there are in effect two winners in the primary. The top two candidates begin a five-month campaign this month.
These top candidates matched the up and down polls of the past two weeks. The most recent polls had showed support for Becerra surging past the others.
The $300 million primary campaign for governor was the most expensive in California history.
More than two-thirds of that total came from Steyer’s own deep pockets. He spent more than $216 million. Independent expenditure committees pitched in nearly $80 million, spread among the top six candidates.
Here are the total for leading candidates, as of 5:48pm, June 3:
- Steve Hilton, 1,417,689 27.6%
- Xavier Becerra, 1,310,710 25.5%
- Tom Steyer, 1,013,488 19.7%
- Chad Bianco, 579,839 11.3%
- Katie Porter, 236,720 4.6%
- Matt Mahan, 209,175 4.1%
Mahan and Porter both issued concession statements Tuesday evening.
“I want to congratulate my fellow candidates on a hard-fought campaign,” Mahan said. “While this campaign for governor ends tonight, our mission has only begun.”
“Running a race like this isn’t easy, and coming up short is hard, but democracy is worth doing hard things for,” said Porter. “Stay in the fight, stay in touch, and thank you for believing in me.”
The long list of 61 governor candidates facing voters included two who had dropped out after ballots were printed, Rep. Erik Swalwell and Betty Yee. The list included 36 Democrats and 12 Republicans; the remainder, like a big portion of the electorate, listed no party preference or minor party.
(You can read our election night story here.)
