By Jeff Horseman
A 600-vote lead is big enough for Leticia Castillo to declare victory in what would be an upset in the race for a state Assembly seat representing part of the Inland Empire.
“To the voters, thank you for placing your faith and trust in me,” Castillo, a Republican, said in a statement issued Tuesday night, Nov. 26. “I will work tirelessly in Sacramento to fight for the People, striving to improve the lives of my constituents and all Californians.”
Castillo’s opponent, Democrat Clarissa Cervantes, isn’t ready to concede.
“There are still well over a thousand votes likely left in this race, and we are committed to ensuring every single vote is counted,” Cervantes said via text. It’s not clear where she’s getting that figure.
Cervantes said her supporters have helped “hundreds” of voters correct problems with their ballots that prevented them from being counted.
“However, the Riverside County Registrar of Voters appears to be waiting until the last minute to review most of these cures, risking the disenfranchisement of voters whose signature cure forms are deemed to still not match their voter registration card signature enough,” she said.
“We urge the Registrar to act swiftly and fairly to ensure that every cured ballot is reviewed thoroughly and every voter’s voice is heard. This election is too important to let bureaucracy stand in the way of democracy.”
The registrar’s office did not immediately respond Wednesday, Nov. 27, to a request for comment.
Going into Wednesday, Castillo led Cervantes by 600 votes — 50.2% to 49.8% — out of more than 155,000 ballots counted in California’s 58th Assembly District, according to online results posted by the California Secretary of State.
According to Castillo, just 500 ballots remain to be counted in the district. It’s not clear how her campaign arrived at that figure, but in a Wednesday email Castillo said her campaign declared victory based on registrar’s data and its analysis of the estimated unprocessed ballots in both Inland counties.
The 58th — Jurupa Valley, Grand Terrace and parts of Corona, Eastvale and Riverside — is currently represented by Cervantes’ sister, Assemblymember Sabrina Cervantes, D-Riverside, who is moving to the legislature’s upper chamber after winning a state Senate seat in the Tuesday, Nov. 5, election.
The plan was for Clarissa Cervantes, a Riverside city councilmember, to take her sister’s place in the Assembly. The 58th is friendly ground for Democrats, who make up 43% of the district’s registered voters compared to 28% for Republicans.
Clarissa Cervantes’ road to Sacramento got bumpy in 2023, when she pleaded guilty to drunk driving. It was her second DUI conviction in less than 10 years, and it became fodder for attacks against her in a primary featuring fellow Democrat and Riverside City Councilmember Ronaldo Fierro.
Despite that, Cervantes beat Fierro in the March primary and raised close to $1 million for her campaign, compared to roughly $81,000 that Castillo took in for her Assembly bid.
In her email, Castillo said her campaign is aware of the “significant voter registration gap between Democrats and Republicans” in the district.
“Our victory over the well-funded, well-supported, and well-known Clarissa Cervantes is a testament to the grace of God, the support of my family, the strategy and hard work of my team, and the will of Californians who have had enough of policies that have been detrimental to the daily lives of individuals, families, and businesses,” Castillo wrote.
If Castillo wins, two of the three assemblymembers representing the city of Riverside and its plurality of Democratic voters will be Republicans. The city is divided between the 58th, 60th (Assemblymember Corey Jackson, D-Moreno Valley) and 63rd (Assemblymember Bill Essayli, R-Corona) districts.
Castillo, a marriage and family therapist and Corona native, has consistently held a lead of at least several hundred votes in the days following the general election.
California takes weeks to count votes due to the large volume of mail-in ballots, which must be counted as long as they’re postmarked on or before Election Day and arrive no later than a week after Election Day.
Elections officials in Riverside and San Bernardino counties said they expect to wrap up vote-counting by Tuesday, Dec. 3.
