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By JULIE JOHNSON
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT
Assembly candidate Michael Allen saw his lead narrow to 270 votes Monday in the hard-fought 7th Assembly District Democratic primary after all the mail-in ballots were counted in Solano County, the stronghold of his main rival, Vallejo City Councilman Michael Wilson.
Michael Allen
Votes are still being counted in Sonoma and Napa counties, which both tilted heavily for Allen on Election Day.
Both candidates said they expected a clear winner to emerge Wednesday when Napa County certifies its final tally. Sonoma County will issue its final vote count on Friday or Monday.
“It’s exciting to see that my lead in Solano has improved since Election Day,” Wilson said. “Now I’m waiting for those Napa votes.”
Allen, a former Santa Rosa planning commissioner who is favored to win the primary, said Wilson’s lead in Solano “confirms that the trends that were established on election night are holding,” he said.
Michael Wilson
“We lost some of our lead but we’re feeling pretty confident,” Allen said.
The two men are vying to replace departing Assemblywoman Noreen Evans, who is running for the state Senate.
With Solano County posting its final results and only mail-in ballots left uncounted in Sonoma and Napa counties, Allen had 14,779 votes and Wilson had 14,509 votes. Former Santa Rosa Councilman Lee Pierce trailed in third with 7,102 votes.
Allen held a 520-vote lead on election night, but saw it shrink when all the votes were counted in Solano County, where Wilson beat Allen 48 percent to 37 percent.
On Monday, Sonoma County officials began counting the 26,000 vote-by-mail ballots that were turned in at the polls or arrived in the mail the week of the election, said Gloria Colter, the county’s assistant registrar of voters.
But both candidates are watching Napa County. It is the only one of the three counties where all of its voters reside in the 7th Assembly District, which covers portions of Sonoma and Solano counties.
Napa election officials had about 13,000 ballots left to certify, a record number of mail-in ballots delivered to the polls, Napa Registrar John Tuteur said.
“We’ve just about done counting,” Tuteur said late Monday.
If he maintains his lead after Wednesday, Allen said he’d be prepared to send a notice to the public that “we believe we’re the victors and it’s time to get ready for the fall.”
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Allen says it’s time to get ready for the fall. Yes, he should be. Now that the FPPC, the FBI and probably the IRS soon is investigating him, he will fall and we will have a Republican representing the 7th district. It’s amazing to me that some people still support the scofflaw. I will be voting for a Republican candidate for the first time in my life and I know that she will be way better than corrupt Allen.
The web of deceit spun by the Allen camp is so disgusting that it seems the entire Democratic party is infected by it. Let’s flush out the bad actors and get our party back on track. I’m thankful that the non-partisan group exposed Michael Allen’s corruption in a mailer. That one mailer as opposed to about 6 put out by the Allen propaganda team almost turned the election. Too bad it came just short of accomplishing it. Allen spent around 4 times as much money on his campaign than his opponents yet is winning by just a few votes. That says that a lot of people will not vote for someone that breaks the rules. In the next round, everyone will know about it and he will go down.
Thankfully, this protracted ordeal is close to the end. The only reason this race was even close was that an anti-union statewide Republican law firm ponied up a big chunk of money (probably earned from union-busting for corporate clients)to put out a shameful last-minute hit piece.
If the Michael Allen team had not done endless hours of precinct walking and phone banking, the forces of darkness would have prevailed. Now that they have been exposed, the disinfectant of sunshine will limit their malign influence. We can count on the Swift Boater slime-meisters to crawl out of the woodwork whenever a progressive leader like Michael Allen runs for office.
Michael Allen’s long-time involvement as the President of the North Bay Labor Council is the real source of the vicious opposition to his candidacy. The right-wing has been trying to kill off the union movement in this country for decades, and anyone who comes out of the progressive labor movement will be a target for their hatred.
But, times have changed, and a new day is dawning. Justice will prevail.
Wilson still didn’t pull ahead in his hometown. That doesn’t bode too well for him since Allen did way better in Sonoma and Napa…@(A real)Lifelong Democrat wouldn’t compare another Dem like Allen a to George Bush by the way…sounds as if Life Long is another GOP fan of Wilsons… the GOP are the ones who did a hit on Allen….and they support Wilson who is bought by oil and big business….
Deja vu – all over again! Shades of George W. Bush and the 2000 election results. Mr. Allen will declare a win tomorrow before the official count is announced. The term is “chutzpah”!
“Both candidates said they expected a clear winner to emerge Wednesday when Napa County certifies its final tally. Sonoma County will issue its final vote count on Friday or Monday.”
“If he maintains his lead after Wednesday, Allen said he’d be prepared to send a notice to the public that “we believe we’re the victors and it’s time to get ready for the fall.”