Community activist Wendy Carrillo has a spot in the Dec. 5 runoff in the 51st Assembly District special election with nonprofit healthcare director Luis Lopez holding a 431-vote lead over Los Angeles Community College Board of Trustees member Mike Fong for the second spot.
Carrillo had 3,604 votes with all 129 precincts and vote by mail ballots counted, according to semi-official figures released Tuesday by the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk.
Lopez had 3,283 votes and Fong 2,852. No other candidate received more than 2,000 votes.
The preliminary turnout was 7.83 percent.
Each of the top eight candidates were Democrats.
A runoff is needed because no candidate in the 13-candidate field received a majority.
An update with uncounted ballots will be released Friday.
The field in the overwhelmingly Democratic district included 10 Democrats and one member each from the Libertarian and Peace and Freedom parties.
Government innovation consultant Patrick Koppula was listed on the ballot without a party preference.
The special election was prompted by then-Assemblyman Jimmy Gomez’s election to Congress in a special election June 6.
The district includes Echo Park, Chinatown, Glassell Park, Montecito Heights, Monterey Hills, El Sereno, Highland Park, Mount Washington, Lincoln Heights, City Terrace, Eagle Rock, East Los Angeles and a portion of Silver Lake.
—City News Service