3 out of 8 Fil-Am bets in California win seats

Angela Casauay

This is AI generated summarization, which may have errors. For context, always refer to the full article.

Out of 8 Filipino-Americans who ran for electoral positions in the state of California, 3 candidates, who are all incumbents, managed to garner the majority vote.

MANILA, Philippines – Out of 8 Filipino-Americans who ran for electoral positions in the state of California, 3 candidates, all of them incumbents, managed to garner the majority vote on Tuesday, November 7.

LEGISLATIVE. Alameda Vice Mayor Rob Bonta will move up to the State Assembly after winning as representative of the 18th District of California. Photo from Bonta's official website.

Incumbent Alameda Vice Mayor Rob Bonta clinched a seat in the State Assembly with 50,028 votes or 50.8% of the total number of votes in a close race against opponent Abel Guillen. 

Other Fil-Ams who made a bid for legislative seats were not as lucky. Christopher Mateo (12th District) received 42,034 votes or 38.6% while Jennifer Ong (20th District) obtained 44, 016 votes or 48.7%. 

Local level

FIFTH TERM. Milpitas City Mayor Jose Esteves is the first Filipino-American to become mayor of the city. Photo from Esteves' Twitter account.

In the City of Milpitas, incumbent mayor Jose Esteves was re-elected for the 5th time with 8952 votes or 72.03%, beating challenger Rob Means. 

Esteves, a licensed engineer, was born and raised in Dagupan City. 

Meanwhile, Garry Barbadillo, who was endorsed by Esteves, lost his bid for a seat in the Milpitas City Council, receiving 3,545 votes or 16.69%. 

In Alameda County, three Filipinos vyed for city council seats. 

COUNCILMAN. Union City council member Jim Navarro's gets re-elected with a convincing margin. Photo from Navarro's Facebook account.

Incumbent council member Jim Navarro was the lone successful candidate, winning a seat in the Union City Council with 8558 votes or 66.99%, defeating Jose Estrella. 

Navarro, an engineer by profession, has been a member of the city council since 2004. 

Hermy Almonte (San Leandro City Council) and Stewart Chen (Alameda City Council) both lost, with 6516 votes or 43.98% and 5640 votes or 16.92% respectively.

(View other stories on Fil-Am candidates in the House of Representatives here; Fil-Am bets in Hawaii here, and Pennsylvania here)

President Barack Obama won a second term on Wednesday (Manila time), beating Republican rival Gov Mitt Romney. 

Immigrants largely went for Obama in this race.

There are 3.4 million Filipino-Americans. The registered Fil-Am voters — about 700,000 — only comprise 17.5% of the population.

California, where 43% of Fil-Ams are located, is a solid Democratic state. Except for Texas (4%), a CNN map shows the other states populated by Filipino-Americans are solid Democratic states – Hawaii (10%), Illinois (4.1%), and Washington (4%). –Rappler.com

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