Democrat Christy Holstege and her Republican opponent Greg Wallis are roughly 1% apart in the race for California State Assembly in the 47th District following the latest tally of votes. In city races, there continues to be no movement.
As of Tuesday evening, Holstege was ahead by a 50.4% to 49.6% margin, with 68,962 votes compared to his 67,839. That means it’s still up in the air whether she will be leaving the Palm Springs City Council in December.
It may be days before the 47th District race is officially decided. Both Riverside and San Bernardino counties continue to tally vote-by-mail and provisional ballots, with more updates promised for Wednesday evening. On Tuesday, Riverside County, which is swinging more in Holstege’s favor, announced it had received approximately 50,000 additional timely postmarked ballots since Election Day in addition to 67,000 that were still to be counted.
There was no movement in the vote totals for Palm Springs City Council races for the third consecutive day, and it is not known how many of the votes left to count might factor into city races.
In the District 1 race, Challenger Scott Nevins continues to lead incumbent Mayor Pro Tem Grace Garner by 56 votes — 1,180 votes to 1,124. City Council races in district 2 and 3, where no incumbent was running, are not as tight. Jeffrey Bernstein continues to lead Renee Brown in the District 2 race, 1,643 votes to 1,336. In District 3, Ron deHarte leads Joy Meredith 1,633 to 853.
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, and track the Palm Springs City Council races here.
