CARLOS MANZO, Westminster City Councilmember (District).
By Jim Tortolano
Orange County Tribune
There were a lot of surprises in the nationwide mid-term elections on Tuesday, but the biggest turnabout locally are results from the Westminster City Council election.
According to the latest figures from the Orange County Registrar of Voters, Councilmember Carlos Manzo is leading incumbent mayor Chi Charlie Nguyen by 167 votes. That’s 8,936 votes for Manzo to 8,769 for Nguyen.
Another result of note is in the contest for the District 1 seat held by the controversial incumbent Amy Phan West. David Johnson, who serves on the Westminster School District board, is leading West by 3,142 (50.94 percent) to 2,551 (41.36 percent).
Another changing of the guard that may be coming to the Garden Grove City Council is in the District 4 race, where challenger Hieu Nguyen is leading the field with 2,356 votes (36.90 percent), followed by former councilmember Patrick Phat Bui with 1,768 votes (27.69 percent). Incumbent Joe DoVinh is in third place with 1,592 votes (24.93 percent).
Rogers Flanders is the likely winner of the District 1 race to replace Councilmember George Brietigam, who is termed out. Flanders had 3,898 votes (49.27 percent), followed by Long Nguyen with 2,242 votes (34.24 percent) and Thomas Quoc Thai Nguyen with 705 votes (10.77 percent).
In the 36th State Senate race, incumbent Republican (and former Huntington Beach mayor) Tony Strickland is trailing Democratic challenger Chris Duncan by 165,409 (50.6 percent) to 161,337 (49.4 percent).
In the 72th State Assembly seat contest, Huntington Beach City Councilmember Gracey Van Der Mark, a Republican, is holding a lead over Democrat Chris Kluwe by 94,499 votes (50.6 percent) to 92,285 (49.4 percent).
The next update from the Orange County Registrar of voters is Saturday afternoon.
