Wildman Declared Winner in Close Assembly Contest

Teachers’ union official Scott Wildman won election to the state Assembly on Friday, eking out a victory in the closest legislative race in the county to become the first Democratic legislator elected to the Glendale-Burbank area seat in six decades.

In the last county race to be decided, Wildman’s margin over GOP businessman John Geranios in the Nov. 5 balloting was a slim 192 votes.

As the close vote count stretched out 17 days after the election, Wildman saw his initial 544-vote lead dwindle to 81 before climbing slowly again over the last week to 192.

The final count, released late Friday by the county registrar-recorder, was 49,452 votes (48.35%) for Wildman and 49,260 votes (48.16) for Geranios.

Libertarian Willard Michlin won the remaining 3.49%.

“Excellent,” said Wildman, who was waiting for the final results to be posted on the Internet when a reporter informed him of his victory. “I like that news.”

Although a Geranios spokesman alleged voter fraud just after the election, the Republican has been noncommittal about whether he will either seek an investigation or a recount. He did not return phone calls Friday, but has maintained a positive attitude over what both candidates agree was an agonizing wait for the outcome of their hard-fought contest.

“Win or lose, I have been energized by this race,” Geranios said Thursday.

He was expected to win, as Republicans always have in a district that was most recently represented by conservative James Rogan, who won a seat in Congress in this election.

Indeed, it was virtually impossible even a month before the election to find a political pundit who thought Wildman could prevail. “In newspapers after the primary, I was the guy who was also on the ticket,” Wildman recalled Friday.

Even the Democratic Assembly caucus, which carefully selected viable races to bankroll, put the 43rd District on the back burner in favor of other contests.

It was only in mid-October after tracking polls consistently showed Wildman and Geranios running neck-and-neck that the caucus bought into the race. The party pumped roughly $300,000 into his race in the final three weeks, triple the amount he had raised before that, Wildman said.

Geranios, 34, a successful businessman and management professor at Mt. St. Mary’s College in Brentwood, spent more than $400,000 of his own money in the primary alone. Although final spending reports are not available, Geranios said he was prepared to spend an equal amount to beat Wildman.

But Wildman, 45, an administrator for the United Teachers of Los Angeles, was boosted by the unprecedented Democratic get-out-the-vote effort in an area where two Assembly, one state Senate and one congressional seat were at stake.

Now that Wildman’s victory is clinched, Rogan is the lone Republican legislator representing the area, which has been slowly becoming more Democratic over the past decade. In addition to Wildman, Democrat Jack Scott was elected to the 44th Assembly District, while Democrat Adam Schiff won a state Senate seat.

Both Wildman and Geranios were newcomers to the district, but they were received in different ways.

While Wildman drew scant attention in his uncontested primary, Geranios was caught up in a wild and woolly nine-way GOP contest.

Geranios’ sudden appearance on the political scene did not sit well with local political players accustomed to candidates with longer histories in the community. He was blasted from all sides as a carpetbagger trying to buy a seat. The ill will did not fully dissipate after the primary and may have been responsible for Geranios losing the race.

Among those who thought so was Wildman. “The dissonance in the party is something my opponent never overcame,” Wildman said.

Also working against Geranios was the complacency that afflicts a party that seems to have a permanent lease on the office, Wildman said.

When only a few absentee ballots had been counted, Geranios predicted to an election night crowd that he and other GOP candidates had fended off the Democratic takeover effort.

Now that the seat is finally his, Wildman understands he will have to walk a fine line to keep it.

“It was a very close race,” Wildman said. “I’m going to have to balance the interests of a very complex, diverse district . . . . My job is to build consensus. If I don’t, in two years I’ll be voted out.”