Democrat Sharon Quirk-Silva concedes in O.C. Assembly race
Democratic Assemblywoman Sharon Quirk-Silva has fallen to a challenge from Republican Young Kim in one of the year’s most expensive Assembly races.
“We fought hard, we worked hard, but tonight is not our victory,” Quirk-Silva said on Twitter shortly before midnight Tuesday.
Democratic Party committees spent nearly $2 million in the last month of the campaign to protect Quirk-Silva, whose seat in the 65th district was seen as crucial in keeping the party’s supermajority in the Assembly.
In October, the California Republican Party directed more than $650,000 to boost Kim, a former aide to Rep. Ed Royce (R-Fullerton).
Observers said the race between Kim, a Korean American, and Quirk-Silva, who is Latina, illustrated the changing demographics of Orange County, which have turned this once solidly Republican seat into a swing district.
During the campaign, Kim criticized Quirk-Silva as soft on protecting Proposition 13, the state’s landmark property tax law.
Quirk-Silva, a former Fullerton city councilmember and teacher, has focused on local issues, including her push to have a new veterans’ cemetery built in Orange County. Those efforts were lauded by Gov. Jerry Brown at an event last month at the cemetery’s future site in Irvine.
Follow @melmason for more on California government and politics.
Start your day right
Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
