Assembly District 50 Election Results: Richard Bloom Increases Lead Again Over Betsy Butler to 888 Votes
The Los Angels County Registrar-Recorder completed another count on Monday for the nail-biting Assembly District 50 race, and Santa Monica Mayor Richard Bloom increased his lead again over Assemblywoman Betsy Butler. Bloom is now ahead by 888 votes.
Ted Soqui Richard Bloom and Betsy Butler
By the end of last Friday's count, Bloom was winning by 430 votes, so he more than doubled his advantage on Monday. During the registrar-recorder's extended vote count for the AD 50 race, Butler has never pulled ahead of Bloom. With fewer and fewer ballots to count, Butler's chances of winning are not looking good.
According to the L.A. County Registrar-Recorder, Bloom has 89,705 votes to Butler's 88,817. A winner will officially be declared by December 4.
Both candidates are Democrats, but Bloom is considered the underdog in the race -- Butler got major support from the California State Democratic Party. She also raised at least $1.3 million compared to Bloom's $507,000.
But Butler had been dogged by a scandal during the campaign that never went away.
In June, she refused to vote on a sex-pervert bill that would have more easily lifted teachers out of the classroom for committing sexual and physical abuse against students. Her non-vote helped to kill the bill, which was written by Democratic state Senator Alex Padilla of Los Angeles.
The measure was approved by the state senate but died in the assembly. L.A. Weekly, and later CNN, exposed Butler's non-vote.
Contact Patrick Range McDonald at pmcdonald@laweekly.com.
Email to Friend
Write to Editor
Print Article
