Orange County supervisor heads to runoff for Assembly seat

Orange County Supervisor Chris Norby will head to a January runoff in the bid to replace former state Assemblyman Mike Duvall. Duvall resigned earlier this year after he was caught on tape bragging about supposed extramarital affairs. Voters in northern Orange County hit the polls yesterday in a primary election to replace Duvall.

With all precincts accounted for, Norby came away with 37.2 percent of the vote. That was enough to come in first, but not enough to skip a runoff election. The Republican will face Democrat John MacMurray, who picked up 27.1 percent of the vote.

Another Republican, Linda Ackerman, who is the wife of former state lawmaker Dick Ackerman, grabbed 19.7 percent of the vote.

Jane Rands of the Green Party makes the runoff ballot, but only because the leading vote-getter from each party in the race must be represented. She only got 2.8 percent of the vote.

In all, it was dismal turnout. Only 38,000 people, a little more than 17 percent of registered voters in the 72nd Assembly District, bothered to cast a ballot. Most did so by mail.

If Norby wins the runoff election in January, his Orange County supervisor seat will remain empty until the June election.