Democrat Gregg Hart was the apparent winner in Tuesday’s 37th District State Assembly race , with 58% of the vote over Republican Mike Stoker, who had 42%.
The results are “semi-official,” with an unknown number of ballot remaining to be counted.
“I’m very proud of the support that I’ve received from our community,” Hart told Noozhawk. “I think it’s a reflection of the campaign that I ran that was based on values and integrity and the work I’ve been doing as a local government official for many years.”
The 37th State Assembly District, with its new boundary lines after redistricting, consists of all of Santa Barbara County and part of southern San Luis Obispo County.
Hart currently represents the Second District on the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors, and Stoker served on the county Board of Supervisors from 1986 to 1994, representing the Second and Fifth districts.
Before being elected to the Board of Supervisors in 2018, Hart was appointed to the Santa Barbara City Planning Commission in 1987, then elected to the Santa Barbara City Council in 1995 and 1999, and again in 2013 and 2017.
He also worked at the Santa Barbara County Association of Governments.
“[State Assembly] is an opportunity to continue the work that I’ve been doing at the local level — bringing people together to solve problems,” Hart said. “I’m going to take that same approach to Sacramento and build strong relationship with my colleagues and try to make meaningful change that helps all the residents of our county.”
Stoker has served as the chairman of the California Agricultural Labor Relations Board and as the Southwest regional administrator for the Environmental Protection Agency.
Check back with Noozhawk for updates as election results are updated with additional ballots being processed and counted.
After polls closed at 8 p.m. on Tuesday, the County Elections Office released results for all the ballots that had already been received and counted. Additional updates were issued later Tuesday night, and later this week as more ballots are counted.
Results will be updated again on Nov. 15, which is the deadline for vote-by-mail ballots to be delivered to the County Elections Office as long as the ballots are postmarked on or before Election Day.
The Santa Barbara County Elections Office will certify the Nov. 8 election results by Dec. 8.
— Noozhawk staff writer Serena Guentz can be reached at sguentz@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.