Republican Peter Tateishi has beaten Barbara Ortega for the right to butt heads with Democrat Ken Cooley in the November election for the 8th Assembly District seat.
Tateishi's lead over Ortega for second place had grown from 657 after precinct counts to 2,612 votes on Friday as officials tallied write-ins, provisionals and other ballots received on election day.
With fewer than 5,700 such ballots remaining to be counted in Sacramento County, and with only a portion of those from the 8th Assembly District, Ortega conceded defeat to Tateishi late Friday through a campaign aide.
"Given the number of votes that are left to count, we don't think that she can make up the difference," said Cristina Rivera, spokeswoman for Ortega's campaign.
"So she's willing to concede that Peter is the top Republican vote getter, but she's very happy with the campaign that she ran ... She has no regrets," Rivera said.
Cooley, the only Democrat in the race, finished an easy first by garnering 42.8 percent of votes cast. Tateishi collected 23.5 percent, followed by Ortega, 20.1 percent. The remainder were split among three other candidates.
Both Cooley, a state Senate aide, and Tateishi, chief of staff to Republican Rep. Dan Lungren of Gold River, said Friday that they look forward to their looming showdown in November.
The 8th Assembly District extends from Citrus Heights to the Sacramento County line south of Wilton.
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