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Special Election Set For 31st Assembly District

Photo used under Creative Commons from Andy Patterson / Modern Relics
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Governor Jerry Brown has set the dates for the special election to fill the vacant seat for 31st Assembly District. A special primary will be held in three months on April 5th. The top two candidates from that contest will advance to a special election on June 7th. That of course is also the date of regular June primary for all other races. 

So far there’s two candidates, Kingsburg physician Joaquin Arambula, a Democrat and Fresno City Councilmember Clint Olivier, a Republican. It’s the same pair that had planned to square off in 2016 anyway, but Fresno State political science professor Thomas Holoyoke says moving the election up could give a boost to Olivier’s campaign. 

Holyoke: “If this contest had happened in November of 2016, that would have been to Arambula’s benefit because Democrats have a greater tendency to turnout then anyway. But now it’s a special election. [In a] June contest, it comes down more to who can really have the best voter turnout operation going, and that’s something that has tended to benefit Republicans.”

Fresno Democrat Henry T. Perea had held the seat since 2010. He resigned last month to take a job with the pharmaceutical industry.

Joe Moore is the President and General Manager of KVPR / Valley Public Radio. He has led the station through major programming changes, the launch of KVPR Classical and the COVID-19 pandemic. Under his leadership the station was named California Non-Profit of the Year by Senator Melissa Hurtado (2019), and won a National Edward R. Murrow Award for investigative reporting (2022).
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