Election Results for Orange County: Michelle Steel and Robert Ming Lead

Originally posted at 10:44 p.m. June 3, 2014. Edited with new details.

Orange County District Attorney Tony Rackauckas won handily and runoffs are in store for two Orange County Board of Supervisor seats. Meanwhile, incumbent County Assessor Webster Guillory was heading for a November runoff in hopes of keeping his job.

Rackauckas handily defeated Attorney Greg Diamond, a former Orange County Democratic Party official, liberal blogger and ex-Occupy activist. Diamond, 54, said he decided to challenge Rackauckas because no one else would. He criticized Rackauckas for personally prosecuting the Kelly Thomas case, which ended in the acquittals of the Fullerton police officers charged in the transient's death.

Rackauckas, 71, had not faced a challenger since 2002. 

In the race for Second District seat to replace termed-out Supervisor John Moorlach, Michelle Steel, a termed-out member of the state Board of Equalization, led the four-candidate field, but fell shy of the 50 percent of the vote needed to avoid a November runoff. Assemblyman Allan Mansoor, R-Costa Mesa, appeared to outlast two other competitors to snare the second spot in the runoff.

Jim Moreno, a trustee of the Coast Community College District and the only Democrat in the race, was third while Huntington Beach City Councilman Joe Carchio was a distant fourth.

In the race to replace Fifth District Supervisor Patricia Bates, whose term expires in January, Dana Point Mayor Lisa Bartlett and Laguna Niguel Councilman Robert Ming will face off in November.

The district is about 46 percent Republican and 27 percent Democrat, with 22 percent adhering to no political party, according to county data.

In the race for county clerk-recorder, incumbent Hugh Nguyen, who was appointed in 2013, outpaced Monica Maddox, a businesswoman who pledged to cut waste and fraud and not accept a pension; Gary Pritchard, 42, of Aliso Viejo, a member of the Capistrano Unified School District board; and retired teacher Steve Rocco, who did not submit campaign information to the League of Women Voters and California Education Fund.

Guillory fell just shy of the 50 percent vote tally he needed to retain his job as assessor, so he will face Claude Parrish, a former chairman of the state Board of Equalization, in November.

Meanwhile, county voters approved Measure A, requiring county elected officials -- members of the Board of Supervisors and countywide offices -- to pay their own pension costs.

2nd District, Orange County Board of Supervisors, 391 of 423 precincts reporting

• MICHELLE STEEL 23,746/46.6%
• ALLAN R. MANSOOR 11,881/23.3%
• JIM MORENO 11,019/21.6%
• JOE CARCHIO 4,329/8.5%

5th District, Orange County Board of Supervisors, all 441 precincts reporting

• ROBERT MING 14,757/29.4%
• LISA BARTLETT 14,552/29.0%
• FRANK URY 11,861/23.6%
• JOE WILLIAMS 9,030/18.0%

--City News Service