Metropolitan News-Enterprise

 

Thursday, June 17, 2010

 

Page 1

 

Salkin Claims Victory in Contested Superior Court Race

 

By a MetNews Staff Writer

 

Deputy District Attorney Valerie Salkin claimed victory yesterday in her bid for election to the Los Angeles Superior Court.

A spokesperson for the county registrar said there were only 10,000 absentee and provisional ballots remaining to be counted from the June 8 primary. Since Salkin’s vote total exceeds the combined vote of her two opponents by more than 12,000, her election appears a certainty, although the official canvass will not take place for several days.

Salkin told the MetNews she was “really pleased and gratified that this worked out as it did.” She added that she will likely seek a gubernatorial appointment to the seat, which is vacant as a result of the May 11 retirement of Judge William Weisman, once all the votes have been counted.

Salkin had 50.7 percent of the vote on election night, but said she did not consider the election over because there were nearly 150,000 ballots remaining to be counted. But with approximately one-fourth of the voters having made no choice for Superior Court Office No. 107, there was little possibility of a change in the outcome.

In fact, Salkin did better in the late-counted absentee and provisional ballots, raising her overall total to 365,666 votes in the registrar’s latest update, or 50.9 percent. Pasadena attorney Tony de los Reyes had 227,653, or 31.69 percent, and R. Stephen Bolinger, who practices in San Pedro, had 125,019, or 17.4 percent.

De los Reyes, whose consultant told the MetNews the day after the election that a runoff was “not inconceivable” but would require that Salkin take no more than 46 percent of the remaining ballots, could not be reached yesterday for comment.

Salkin said that she was glad that the campaign was conducted “at an ethical level.” She explained that she “never heard any of my opponents say a bad thing about me, nor did I say a bad thing.”

She added that she hoped that de los Reyes, whose name has gone to the State Bar Commission on Judicial Nominees Evaluation as a potential appointee, succeeds in that endeavor.

 

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