Bocanegra concedes defeat in Valley race (updated)

The latest and final vote tally shows challenger Patty Lopez ahead of Assemblyman Raul Bocanegra by 467 votes in the northeast Valley's 39th Assembly district. And with that, Bocanegra has acknowledged he has lost. His statement today:

While the vote tally is incredibly close, it is clear that my opponent will be victorious by the narrowest of margins. Although many residents and community leaders throughout the 39th Assembly District have urged me to undertake a recount, I do not want to put the state - and particularly the residents of the Northeast San Fernando Valley - through such a costly and time-consuming process.

It has truly been an honor to serve the people of the 39th Assembly District. As the son of a working-class immigrant family, my mother was a teachers aide and my father was a gardener who came to America searching out the American Dream, my parents instilled in my three siblings and I the belief that if you got a good education, work hard and play by the rules you were going to succeed. My service in the Assembly was the manifestation of their hard work and I will forever be grateful to them.

I am proud to have represented the Northeast San Fernando Valley – the community in which I was born and raised and have spent my life serving. And, I am very proud of what we have accomplished in the past two years, including:

• Expanding Calfresh benefits to tens of thousands of low-income Californians
• Joint Authoring AB 1839, the historic extension and expansion of the State’s film and television tax credit program
• Working to reform Prop 13
• Raising the minimum wage
• Improving access to Medi-Cal services for women and expanding healthcare coverage for millions of Californians
• Making the State’s tax code more fair and equitable
• Helping to pass the State’s water bond

I wish Ms. Lopez the best of luck and I look forward to continuing to serve the people of the 39th Assembly District in the future.

Countywide, the final tally of provisional and disputed ballots leaves Jeffrey Prang ahead in the race for Assessor by 18,076 votes, and the apparent winner over John Morris. In the 66th Assembly district, Republican David Hadley has defeated Democratic Assemblyman Al Muratsuchi by 706 votes, or under 1 percent of the vote.

4 p.m. update: An internal memo by Bocanegra's pollsters says that two-thirds of voters surveyed in exit polling thought they had voted for Bocanegra — and may have been confused by the placement for AD39 at the bottom of the ballot page. "It appears that many voters believed that Lopez was the only Democrat in the race as she was in the “Democratic slot,” and your name appeared second in what was perceived to be the “Republican slot,” pollsters John Fairbank and Adam Sonenshein say in a memo to Bocanegra. "We believe this was a more important factor in Lopez’s current lead in the vote count than any change in voters’ opinions of you or Lopez from the June Primary election."