One race being watched closely in the city changed little after the latest vote counts were announced Friday, while another drew much closer.
After both Riverside and San Bernardino counties reported additional counts, Greg Wallis is now within 285 vote of opponent Christy Holstege, a former mayor and current member of the Palm Springs City Council, in the race for a seat in the State Assembly representing District 47.
Democrat Holstege currently leads Republican challenger Wallis 81,964 to 81,679 — a dead heat by percentage.
Meanwhile, Palm Springs Mayor Pro Tem Grace Garner maintained a roughly 50-vote lead over challenger Scott Nevins in the race for the city’s District 1 seat.
In Riverside County, an additional 20,000 votes were tabulated Friday, including just 23 in the District 1 race. Garner has a 51% to 49% edge. So far she has tallied 1,412 votes to 1,361 for Nevins. The Registrar of Voters reports 27,000 ballots are left to process and that next results should be posted Saturday evening.
In other Palm Springs a City Council races, nothing has changed. Jeffrey Bernstein continues to lead Renee Brown in the District 2 race, 1,956 votes to 1,622 (55% to 45%). In District 3, Ron deHarte leads Joy Meredith, 1,918 to 1,041 (65% to 35%).
Holstege is midway through her second term on the City Council as the District 4 representative. Should she win a seat in Sacramento, it would create a vacancy that would be filled by either a special election or an appointment. So far, four people have stepped up to say they would like to fill a potential vacancy.
The 47th District is new and includes only the western end of the Coachella Valley. It contains much of what was the 42nd District, a Republican stronghold for many years. Palm Springs is currently represented by Assemblymember Chad Mayes, who chose not to run for re-election in the new district. Wallis has worked for Mayes for the past seven years.
You can track the latest vote counts for the 47th District here (note that the Riverside County vote totals usually get added to the totals hours after San Bernardino’s do). You can track the Palm Springs City Council races here.
