Orange County Supervisor Andrew Do was ahead in his reelection bid in unofficial results Tuesday night from the Orange County Registrar of Voters.
Do, who has held the District 1 seat since winning it in a 2015 special election, is hoping to defeat a challenge from Westminster Councilman Sergio Contreras. Neither candidate could be reached for comment late Tuesday.
The returns include mail ballots returned through Monday as well as early voting and in-person voting ballots from Tuesday.
See the latest election results.
Do and Contreras competed with two other candidates for the seat in the March primary and were the first and second place finishers, respectively. But Do fell short of the 50%-plus-one-vote he needed to avoid a runoff.
Do is a former businessman and prosecutor who was the second Vietnamese-American elected to the board. Contreras has also served on the Westminster School District board and works as senior director of education and healthy schools for the Orange County United Way.
In terms of spending, the contest will likely end up being a multi-million dollar race.
On Do’s last periodic pre-election report in mid-October, he reported spending more than $464,000 on the race in 2020, and if he spends all the additional contributions he reported getting through Election Day, he’ll clear $500,000.
Add to that the more than $376,000 in spending Contreras reported as of mid-October and another $20,000 or so he received in late contributions. And among independent expenditures, the Orange County Association of Deputy Sheriffs’ political action committee spent another $987,000 to help elect Do. That could put the total near $2 million.