Live Update: Ex-Modesto mayor, assembly member headed for 5th District senate runoff
Assembly member Susan Eggman of Stockton is headed for victory in the 5th District State Senate primary.
With all the precincts counted, former Modesto Mayor Jim Ridenour secured a second-place finish, far ahead of Modesto City Councilman Mani Grewal.
The top two in the open primary will square off in the November general election.
Eggman, a Democrat, had 31.4 percent of the vote. Ridenour, meanwhile, had 27.9 percent. Grewal was third at 17.9 percent.
He was followed by Stockton Councilman Jesus Andrade with 16.7 percent and Stockton Unified board member Kathleen Garcia with 6.1 percent.
Ridenour reported $7,200 in campaign spending through Feb. 20, while hundreds of thousands of dollars were spent in support of Eggman and Grewal.
Ridenour, who was Modesto’s mayor for eight years, said, “I have been trying to put it out there that I am not happy with the state. If I get in there I will be a spokesman for the people and work hard to get the state back where it belongs.”
The primary featured a large amount of independent committee spending that legally can’t be coordinated with candidates.
Eggman released a statement Wednesday that alluded to a hard-fought campaign. “For us the results show that outside big money interests can’t come into a community and define a public servant who has done the work of the community for a decade,” Eggman said.
“Let’s continue to do the work to build the Central Valley of California to be the great place we’ve always been destined to be, to reflect the people that we are, and to say that every single one of us counts, and every single one of us has a place at the table,” Eggman’s statement said.
Grewal did not return messages from the Modesto Bee.
The race was very much a clash between the moderate Democrat, Grewal, and Eggman, who has progressive views as a member of the Legislature’s LGBT caucus.
Eggman, who has represented the 13th Assembly District, has been in a strategic position to capture the legislative seat held for almost eight years by Sen. Cathleen Galgiani. Grewal was endorsed by Galgiani and ran on the premise that his views favorable to business and law enforcement were more representative of people in the region.
The 5th District includes San Joaquin County, most of Modesto and a piece of southern Sacramento County.
The crowded race attracted attention because of suspicions the state’s “top two” system was gamed to improve Grewal’s chances. Andrade was joined on the GOP side by Garcia, a former Democrat, and Ridenour was a late Republican entry in November.
Ridenour insisted, however, that he aimed to win. The former mayor has name recognition and is a previous board president of the League of California Cities.
A committee getting major funding from Chevron, Valero and other petroleum companies spent more than $800,000 to promote Grewal’s campaign with radio, television, digital and other forms of advertising.
In addition, a real estate independent committee attacked Eggman as a liberal with soft views on law enforcement.
A union-funded committee sent mailers blasting Grewal for close ties to “Big Oil” in a valley where children and adults breathe unhealthy air. Another mailer by the same committee attacked Grewal for his ownership of a commercial building in Modesto housing a massage parlor, which was targeted by police in a 2017 prostitution sting.
Grewal said the attack piece reached a new low in negative campaigning. The councilman said in 2017 he had no knowledge of illegal activity inside the massage business.
This story was originally published March 3, 2020 at 10:25 PM.
