Orange County voters on Tuesday appeared to oust longtime Dist. Atty. Tony Rackauckas in favor of challenger Todd Spitzer, a significant shift for an office that has been repeatedly rocked by scandals in recent years.
With all precincts reporting on Wednesday morning, Spitzer led Rackauckas in the race to become Orange County’s top prosecutor by nearly 6 percentage points, or more than 31,000 votes.
The bitter race included months of flame-throwing between Rackauckas, who has held the position for two decades, and Spitzer, his former protege. The winner will lead an office that handles more than 60,000 cases a year and wields an annual budget of about $145 million.
In other Orange County elections, Undersheriff Don Barnes received 57% of the vote in the race to take over the Sheriff’s Department, taking a strong lead over political newcomer Duke Nguyen with 100% of precincts reporting.
Read the full story on LATimes.com.
