Sacramento suburb Assembly race is the closest in California. Here’s where it stands

California’s most competitive legislative race is taking place in Sacramento’s suburbs, where the state Democratic Party has spent millions of dollars trying to prevent a GOP newcomer from flipping an Assembly seat red.

Incumbent Assemblyman Ken Cooley, D-Rancho Cordova, is facing the reality of a new, more purple district as he tries to fend off Republican challenger Josh Hoover.

Newcomer Hoover led the race by only 16 votes as of Friday, according to the Sacramento County Registrar of Voters Office. The office still has 145,000 ballots left to count, said Janna Haynes, Sacramento County public information officer.

Redistricting gives GOP a boost

Redistricting in 2020 made the new Assembly District 7 a more manageable lift for Hoover, who has served as Rocklin Assemblyman Kevin Kiley’s chief of staff.

The newly drawn district included conservative-leaning Folsom, evening up the partisan composition. About 38% of voters in District 7 are registered Democrats, while 32% are Republicans and about 21% have no party preference.

That narrowed Democrats’ advantage compared to the old District 8, where they enjoyed a 10-point registration edge. About 41% of voters in the previous district were Democrats, 31% were Republicans and nearly 22% had no party preference.

While arriving at a Nov. 10 Assembly Democratic caucus, Cooley told reporters his contest “was always seen as the toughest race in California.”

“He hasn’t had a difficult race, or this challenging of a race, since he first ran in 2012,” said Susan McEntire, political director for Assembly Democrats, which works with the California Democratic Party to back campaigns.

“That gives you an indication,” she added. “I mean, the district looks different than what he had before.”

Democrats spend on Cooley

This shift prompted the California Democratic Party to dump more than $2.3 million into the race to protect Cooley’s seat, which he has held since 2012. The party spent more than $1.5 million in October and early November alone, according to campaign finance data from the Secretary of State’s Office.

Much of the money came in the form of “in-kind” contributions, which means the party did not directly donate cash but used it to help in other ways. For example, the party spent tens of thousands of dollars on mailers and printing costs, staffing, polling and other expenses.

Although he was outspent by Cooley and the Democrats, Hoover also received a significant amount of money from the California GOP, The state Republican Party gave Hoover more than $428,000 in both direct and in-kind contributions.

Andre Levesque, Hoover’s campaign consultant, said he expected to be at a monetary disadvantage, although not quite by such a large margin. Even so, he and Hoover saw the new district as competitive and an opportunity to build on support the Republican had built during his time on the Folsom Cordova Unified School District Board.

“We had enough resources and grassroots support to run a full campaign and get our message out,” Levesque said.

He said the campaign knew it would need to capture “crossover support” from Democrats to win in the new district, and they were confident they would be able to.

“We expected a tough battle,” Levesque said. “We are kind of running against an entrenched Assemblyman.”

This story was originally published November 18, 2022 at 4:39 PM.