Don Perata ahead, Bill Lockyer’s wife wins and other race results

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Sure, Jerry Brown and Barbara Boxer won. Those were the big names on Tuesday’s ballot. But there are plenty of other race results with with political intrigue or deep ties to Sacramento politics across the state.

• Former state Senate leader Don Perata, a Democrat, led a large field of candidates to become the next mayor of the city of Oakland. But he was shy of the 50% mark he would need to avoid instant-runoff calculations that will take place later this week.
• In Alameda County, Nadia Lockyer, the wife of state Treasurer Bill Lockyer, won election to the Board of Supervisors. Lockyer spent more than $1.2 million of his own campaign funds to aid her election. She bested former state Sen. Liz Figueroa, a Democrat who once dated Lockyer.
• Also in Alameda County, Victoria Kolakowski won the race for an empty seat on the county’s Superior Court. Kolakowski, the local paper says, will become the first transgender trial judge in the nation.
• Former GOP Assemblyman Alan Nakanishi is returning to public office — as a Lodi City Council member.
• Anaheim voters banned red-light cameras.

• A neo-Nazi candidate for a small water board in Riverside County lost.

-- Shane Goldmacher in Los Angeles