Angelique Ashby and Dave Jones still battling over Sacramento Senate seat. Who’s in the lead

Angelique Ashby continued to widen her lead over Dave Jones in the Democrat-on-Democrat race for Sacramento’s state Senate seat, according to updated vote counts.

Sacramento City Councilwoman Ashby had about 52% of the vote, and former insurance commissioner Jones had nearly 48%, as of 3 p.m. Friday, according to the Sacramento County Registrar of Voters Office.

The Senate District 8 vote percentages did not change much from the last count, released early Wednesday. But Ashby has opened up a lead of more than 4,000 votes, which suggests a favorable trend for her.

The Associated Press estimates election officials have counted 35% of votes cast in the race. Sacramento County will likely release the next batch of ballots on Tuesday.

Ashby and Jones are competing to replace term-limited Democratic Sen. Richard Pan. Their race has been bitter and expensive, with millions of dollars in special interest spending.

During the last weeks of the race, an oil-backed political action committee spent big to support Ashby with independent expenditure-funded ads. Jones continually criticized Ashby for taking donations from a PAC that supports moderate Democrats and is partially backed by oil companies, among other interests.

In turn, Ashby and her supporters attacked Jones for running what they perceived as a negative campaign.

Toward the end of his campaign, Jones had to combat misleading PAC-backed mailers and digital ads claiming he wants to “take away Medicare” because of his support for single-payer California healthcare.

This story was originally published November 11, 2022 at 4:51 PM.