Assemblyman Levine concedes in long-shot bid for Insurance Commissioner post

Assemblyman Marc Levine on Wednesday conceded in his prolonged-shot bid to unseat California Coverage Commissioner Ricardo Lara.

Levine, a San Rafael Democrat who has represented Marin and southern Sonoma counties following his election in 2012, wrote on Facebook that he could not make up the 6,420 votes as of Wednesday afternoon that had him behind Republican Robert Howell, who trailed Lara in the June 7 principal.

Howell had 1,210,981 votes, or 18.1% of the whole, when Levine was at 1,204,561 votes representing 18.% of the ballots counted from the election, according to the California Secretary of State’s office environment. Lara experienced 2,406,926 votes, or 35.9%.

Levine wrote that “there just are not more than enough uncounted ballots remaining to modify the outcome of the election.”

Ten years ago, Levine was the surprise victor in a Democrat-on-Democrat runoff in opposition to Michael Allen, the assistant vast majority chief, for the North Bay seat in the Assembly.

Levine announced his operate for the coverage commissioner publish final September with a concentrate on marketing campaign finance challenges that have dogged fellow Democrat Lara due to the fact he was elected in 2018 right after serving in the state Senate. The San Diego Union-Tribune documented in May perhaps that Lara was a topic of a probe by the California Truthful Political Techniques Commission about no matter whether coverage industry donations were being remaining diverted to impartial groups to guidance his reelection.

But with the ability of incumbency, Lara secured the endorsements from the wide greater part of Democratic politicians in the state that provided area state Sens. Monthly bill Dodd, of Napa, and Mike McGuire, of Healdsburg. Levine’s marketing campaign in no way took off exterior of endorsements from the editorial pages of newspapers across the state and he mentioned in his article Wednesday that the “race was constantly likely to be an uphill struggle.”

Meanwhile, the contest to replace Levine in the Assembly will most likely be 1 of the most competitive area races on the November ballot. The District 12 contest pits Damon Connolly, a former San Rafael councilman and recent member of the Marin County Board of Supervisors, against Marin County attorney and environmental activist Sara Aminzadeh, a member of the condition Coastal Fee.

Connolly won the June most important by only 1,318 votes, or a margin of .9%. Steve Schwartz, a Sonoma County resident and natural farmer who positioned 3rd in the race, has endorsed Aminzadeh.

Sonoma County voters could be a decisive aspect in the drop election supplied they outnumber all those from Marin. Aminzadeh received Sonoma County in the main with 37.6% of the vote to Connolly’s 29.2%.