With more than 337,000 votes in and “only a few remaining ballots to be counted” in California’s 25th congressional district, incumbent Rep. Mike Garcia (R-Calif.) claimed late Friday he has won by a few hundred votes over challenger Christy Smith (D), who called the declaration premature.
“After a long tough fight, I am proud to earn the privilege of serving CA-25 for another 2 years,” Garcia said in a Twitter post, adding that “victory is clear.”
But in a statement, the California Assemblywoman Smith, said Garcia is jumping the gun.
“With a mere 400-vote margin and thousands of ballots outstanding, election officials are diligently working to process ballots and accurately count all outstanding votes to ensure our communities are heard, and this race remains too close to call,” Smith said in a statement reported Saturday in the East Bay Times.
As of Monday afternoon, the California Secretary of State website lists Garcia with 169,060 votes or 50.1% compared to Smith’s 168,660 votes, or 49.1% it was not clear from the website how many votes remain uncounted.
County elections officials must report final results for presidential electors to the secretary of state by Dec. 1, and all other state contests by Dec. 4, according to the website, which says results will be certified by Dec. 10.
Garcia, who serves on the House Science, Space and Technology Committee, is a former U.S. Navy pilot and Raytheon employee who won a special election in May to claim the open seat created by the resignation of Rep. Katie Hill (D), who resigned in November 2019 after acknowledging an affair with a former campaign staffer.
Cleanup of the Santa Susana Field Laboratory site in Ventura County is a big issue in the district, which includes northern Los Angeles County and part of Ventura County. Boeing and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration control most of the 2,700-acre Santa Susana Field Laboratory grounds, which were used for decades to research rocket-engines. The Department of Energy leased about 450 acres of the land for nuclear energy-related research. The DOE and the state of California recently reached a deal on tearing down the final eight buildings controlled by the department.
