Politics & Government

Banning, Beaumont Voters Favor Republican Incumbents in Primary

Even though the incumbents in the three major races for the local area both won this battle, their challengers are prepared to fight on through November.

Banning and Beaumont voters spoke up this week in the primary election, and that voice was overwhelmingly Republican.

In Tuesday's election, voters in this area were asked to weigh in on their presidential choice, as well as consider candidates for senator and propositions.

In addition, there were three major primaries locally for:

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  • U.S. Representative, 36th Congressional District
  • State Senator, 23rd Senatorial District
  • State Assembly, 42nd Assembly District

In each of those races, the incumbent came out ahead, according to current vote tallies from the Riverside County Registrar's Office.

Also in these cases, those incumbents were Republican:  Mary Bono Mack for U.S. Representative, Bill Emmerson for State Senate and Brian Nestande for State Assembly.

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The margin of victory was high for these politicians, all winning their respective race with approximately 60 percent of the vote.

“The voters of California's 36th Congressional District have sent a clear message of support," Congresswoman Mary Bono Mack said.  "It is a privilege and an honor to serve in Congress and today's vote makes me both humble and proud. This is the first step. I will continue to serve this region with a commonsense, independent approach to government, always fighting for the values we share in our district."

However, her challenger, emergency room doctor Raul Ruiz, says he's just getting started.

“The campaign starts now, and we’re very optimistic about our ability to win," Ruiz said in a statement.  "Our strategy from Day 1 has been to save our resources for November... Washington is broken, and people are sick and tired of partisan bickering and career politicians who have lost touch with their districts."

Assemblyman Brian Nestande, who is campaigning against Beaumont local and school board member Mark Orozco, told Banning-Beaumont Patch in a telephone interview Wednesday that his political philosophy and beliefs have a lot to do with this win.

"Republicans are on a roll," he said.  "So we’re very encouraged statewide by how various Republicans are doing.  My victory in part was due in part to Republicans going out and voting…Hopefully we’ll [also] have a good November.”

Prior to the release of election results, Orozco told Patch that he’s gearing up for November, too.

“No matter which way the results go, I am looking forward to campaigning aggressively to November,” he said.  “ I would like to say thank you to all my supporters and appreciate the support.”

Since there were only two candidates in all three of these local races—all six of them will get to advance on to the November election by default. 

That’s because this is election was held in part to help narrow the field of candidates in races all throughout the state, most of which had more than two per race.

Here are the actual vote tallies for these races, as provided by the Riverside County Office of the Registrar, though approximately 50,000 votes still need to be counted from the county (it's unclear how many of those are from the Banning/Beaumont area):

US Representative 36th District 299/299 100.00%   Vote Count Percent MARY BONO MACK 43,485 58.10% RAUL RUIZ 31,354 41.90% Total 74,839 100.00%

State Senator 23rd District 143/143 100.00%   Vote Count Percent BILL EMMERSON 21,244 66.00% MELISSA RUTH O'DONNELL 10,943 34.00% Total 32,187 100.00%

State Assembly 42nd District 153/153 100.00%   Vote Count Percent BRIAN NESTANDE 26,230 60.01% MARK ANTHONY OROZCO 17,478 39.99% Total 43,708 100.00%


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