Republican David Hadley beat out Democratic Assemblymember Al Muratsuchi for the 66th district assembly seat early Wednesday morning.
The final tally was 51.43 percent of the votes for Hadley and 48.57 percent for Muratsuchi.
Both campaigns held election parties late into Tuesday night, with aides frequently checking updated results. Supporters watched televisions at Rock & Brews in Redondo Beach and Red Car Brewery in Torrance, with periodic cheers as the candidates took turns edging out each other.
The mood was upbeat at Hadley’s party at Rock & Brews early in the night, with many supporters wearing red and “David Hadley for Assembly” stickers. An initial tally of mail-in ballots showed Hadley with a lead of 51.07 percent. The crowd thinned as the night and the race wore on.
Muratsuchi’s party at Red Car Brewery was quieter, with a smaller crowd milling around red, white and blue balloons tied to chairs.
The night capped a fierce campaign season with tough attacks from both sides.
The day after his win, Hadley reflected on the experience of running for state office for the first time.
“The hardest parts about the campaign were all the time I spent away from my family, my business and my other activities, and being attacked daily on TV commercials and in mailboxes,” he said in an email. “But I was born and raised in California and have raised my four kids in the South Bay. I am concerned enough about the future of our state that those sacrifices were worth it to me.”
Hadley, a Republican businessman from Manhattan Beach, challenged Muratsuchi, a Democrat from Torrance, who was elected to the seat in 2012 in a less contested race.
In June, Hadley beat Muratsuchi with 30,996 votes to 30,439 in the primary, in spite of the majority of the district being registered Democrat. (In California’s so-called “jungle primary” system, the two candidates with the most votes go on to compete against each other in the general election, regardless of party affiliation.)
It was a hotly contested general election race, as well. Last week, the Muratsuchi campaign filed a complaint with the Fair Political Practices Commission against Hadley’s campaign and an organization that donated $45,000 to him two weeks ago, accusing them of breaking laws limiting campaign donations. The commission sent Hadley’s campaign a letter on Oct. 21 ordering the candidate to return the money by the end of the next business day, which it did. In a joint letter from Hadley and Paul Nowatka, the chairman of the Republican Party of Los Angeles County—66th Assembly District Central Committee, which donated the money, the two men said that they had acted in good faith and believed the donation was legal. A spokesperson for the commission verified that the money had been returned but declined to comment, saying that it could not talk about open cases.
Tom Montgomery, who said he had been the treasurer of Hadley’s campaign until June 2014, when he became the treasurer for the Republican Party of Los Angeles County—66th Assembly District Central Committee, attributed Muratsuchi’s attack to election nerves.
“Muratsuchi wouldn’t be doing this if he wasn’t scared to death,” said Montgomery.
Last week, California Governor Jerry Brown made a special appearance in Torrance on behalf of Muratsuchi, underscoring the importance of the seat to Democrats.
Hadley and his supporters accused Muratsuchi of not really representing the district, saying that the majority of his donations have come from special interest groups with lobbyists in Sacramento. Mike Shimpock, a consultant for Muratsuchi’s campaign, said that this was not true.
“I think Hadley attacking Al for donations from firefighters and schoolteachers is disingenuous at best, and dishonest at worst,” said Shimpock. “The majority of those small donor PACs are aggregating contributions of working people. It’s highly indicative of what kind of legislator Hadley would be, which is not trustworthy and with ulterior motives.”
Hadley, along with six others, started the Republican Party of Los Angeles County—66th Assembly District Central Committee in 2012 when the new lines were drawn for districts across California. When none of the potential candidates the committee was vetting for the 2014 assembly race decided to run, he threw his hat in the ring and stepped down as chair.
Hadley is president of Hadley Partners, Inc., an investment banking firm he founded in 1999. Before moving to Manhattan Beach 18 years ago, he and his wife lived in New York, where he worked for another investment banking firm. They have four children.
Prior to becoming an assemblymember in 2012, Muratsuchi was a member of the Torrance Unified School Board for seven years. A graduate of the UCLA School of Law, he worked as a deputy attorney general with the California Department of Justice and as a prosecutor with the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office and the Santa Ana City Attorney’s Office. He lives in Torrance with his wife and daughter.
