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San Joaquin Valley Republican Vince Fong was on the ballot this fall for an Assembly race, but he didn’t want to win it. After all, he left that job for Congress earlier this year, and he planned to stay in the nation’s capital.
He even went so far as to endorse the Bakersfield city councilmember who was listed as running against him on the November ballot.
But voters chose Fong anyway for the Assembly. They chose him again for Congress, too, since he was listed on the same ballot twice. And they did so overwhelmingly. By last count , Fong had more than 33,000 votes over fellow Republican Ken Weir for the Assembly seat.
Now, since Fong “won” his Assembly race, Kern and Tulare County taxpayers in Assembly District 32 will end up paying hundreds of thousands of dollars for a special election to fill the seat that Fong doesn’t want any more.