Running Unopposed in 2022

The California State Capitol

According the Notice to Candidates, issued by the Secretary of State on March 26, there will be 13 candidates for partisan office running unopposed in the June Primary. It’s important to remember that additional candidates may appear when the official list of candidates is released early next week, and that candidates can still qualify for the November ballot by running as write-in candidates in June.

Maria Elena Durazo and Ben Allen are the first State Senate candidates to run unopposed since Holly J. Mitchell (in 2018).

Blanca Rubio is unopposed in her run for the State Assembly for the third consecutive election (2022 & 2020 & 2018).

Two other Assembly candidates (Jim Patterson and Reginald Byron Jones-Sawyer) will each be having their third non-consecutive uncontested election. The last Assembly Republican to be elected unopposed more times than Patterson was Glenn Coolidge, who won his fifth uncontested campaign in 1960.

Four Republicans are running unopposed in 2022 (all for the Assembly). The last time four Republicans ran unopposed was 2010 (when two ran unopposed in Congress and two in the Assembly).

Candidates Running Unopposed in the June 2022 Primary:

Maria Elena Durazo (2022) – State Senate
Ben Allen (2022) – State Senate
Blanca Rubio (2022 & 2020 & 2018) – Assembly
Jim Patterson (2022 & 2020 & 2014) – Assembly
Reginald Byron Jones-Sawyer (2022 & 2016 & 2014) – Assembly
Heath Flora (2022) – Assembly
Buffy Wicks (2022) – Assembly
Mia Bonta (2022) – Assembly
Vince Fong (2022) – Assembly
Chris Holden (2022) – Assembly
Luz Rivas (2022) – Assembly
Miguel Santiago (2022) – Assembly
Phillip Chen (2022) – Assembly

Close 2nd Place Finishes

Under the Top Two Primary, it’s the battle between 2nd and 3rd place that is usually the most closely-watched. Here are the 11 races where 2nd and 3rd place are separated by fewer than 1000 votes.

Close 2nd Place Finishes (as of 6/10/16 at 7:22 AM)

CD-53    Veltmeyer trails Ash by 126 votes.
CD-32    Hernández trails Fisher by 222.
AD-12    Madueno trails Flora by 416.
CD-21    Huer trails Parra by 467.
CD-46    Nguyen trails Peterson by 499. Joe Dunn is 816 back from there.
AD-68    Choi trails Sidhu by 529.
AD-26    Mendoza trails Macareno by 583.
AD-10    Jacobi trails Allen by 597.
AD-55    Spence trails Chen by 673.
CD-37    Hasan trails Wiggins by 917.
CD-08    Donnelly trails Rita Ramirez (2nd place) by 926 votes.

Other close races:

AD-24    Ohtaki trails Veenker by 1,223 votes.
CD-12    Picus trails Miller by 1,351 votes.
CD-24    Katcho trails Fareed by 2,357.

Those we lost in 2015

In 2015, we said good-bye to a number of notable elected officials, including Don Edwards, whose work preserving the San Francisco Bay coast is easily visible today and Dick Mountjoy, a central figure in the Assembly speakership battle of 1995.

2015 also saw the demise of the Americans Elect political party, which lived for four years and only had one candidate appear on the ballot; Lieutenant Governor candidate Alan Reynolds who appeared on the 2014 Primary ballot. Americans Elect was born as a fascinating democratic experiment, but never lived up to the promise.

So long, friends…

FEBRUARY
Don H. Clausen – County Supervisor (1955-1962), Member of Congress (1963-1983)
Americans Elect – Ballot-Qualified Political Party (2011-2015)

MARCH
William P. “Bill” Campbell – Assemblyman (1967-1976), State Senator (1976-1992)

MAY
Dick Mountjoy – State Assemblyman (1978-1995), State Senator (1995-2000)

JULY
Hugo Fisher – State Senator (1959-1962), Superior Court Judge (1966-1983)

OCTOBER
Don Edwards – Member of Congress (1963-1994)

NOVEMBER
Larry Chimbole – Mayor, State Assemblyman (1974-1978)