Chau tops Lin, will replace Eng in 49th Assembly District

Despite a fundraising edge and a win in the June primary, former San Marino Mayor Matthew Lin fell to Democrat Ed Chau in Tuesday night’s race for the 49th Assembly District.

Lin, a Republican and a doctor who received significant financial support from healthcare donors and the Republican Party, took 43% of the vote. Chau, a Montebello school board member backed by Rep. Judy Chu (D-Monterey Park) and her husband, out-going 49th District Assemblyman Mike Eng (D-Monterey Park), took 57% of the vote.

“I learned a lot in this campaign, what California needs and about the people in this district,” said Lin, speaking to supporters from campaign headquarters in San Gabriel at 12:45 a.m. “I love this area even more now.”

“Life does not end here,” Lin added. “What we learned in this year we’ll use to give back to this community. We’ll make this community much better than it is today. “

The campaign took a negative turn with accusatory mailers in the waning weeks. But Chau, who focused his campaign on strengthening public schools, said voters kept their eyes on the prize.

“In any political campaign you are going to have distractions sometimes, but the main thing is to stay on message and voters will see through it,” said Chau.

-- Joe Piasecki, Times Community News

Twitter: @JoePiasecki