The quixotic insurance commissioner campaign of Brian FitzGerald has ended. The enforcement attorney in the Department of Insurance has fallen just shy of his upset bid in the Republican primary, according to final results (.pdf) posted by the Secretary of State’s office.
FitzGerald, who ran a no-money, high-ideals campaign to succeed his boss, Steve Poizner, stunned pundits on election night when he held a several thousand vote lead over his much better-funded rival, former Assembly Minority Leader Mike Villines, But that lead slowly disappeared in the ensuing days and the final tally shows Villines winning by 16,346 votes out of 1.96 million votes cast.
As the outcome became more of a certainty, FitzGerald posted this on his blog: “… Those who will vote in the November general election tell me that they are enthused about my message and that is what matters most to me.”
In other election news, the final results in the Democratic attorney general’s race show Chris Kelly (350,757 votes) slipping to third place behind Kamala Harris (762,995) and Alberto Torrico (354,792). Kelly, the former Facebook executive, spent $12 million on his campaign, far more than any other candidate in the race.
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