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Secretary of State Bowen Announces
Certified List of 4th Assembly District Candidates

SACRAMENTO - Secretary of State Debra Bowen today announced the certified list of candidates who will appear on the Special Primary Election ballot to fill the vacancy in the 4th Assembly District seat. The candidates and their official ballot designations are:

• Dennis Campanale (My Party Preference is the Democratic Party) – Retired Fire Chief
• John Allard (My Party Preference is the Republican Party) – Small Independent Businessman
• "Bo" Bogdan Ambrozewicz (My Party Preference is the Republican Party) – Small Businessman
• Cheryl Bly-Chester (My Party Preference is the Republican Party) – Small Business Owner
• Beth B. Gaines (My Party Preference is the Republican Party) – Small Business Woman
• Rob Matthews (My Party Preference is the Republican Party) – Police Officer/Businessman
• Michael F. O’Connor (My Party Preference is the Republican Party) – Retired Personnel Manager
• Matt Williams (My Party Preference is the Republican Party) – Retired Military Lawyer

The Special Primary Election will be held on March 8 to fill the vacancy left by the resignation of Ted Gaines.

In a special primary, all qualified candidates appear on one ballot. If one candidate receives a majority of the votes cast (50 percent plus one), no further election will be necessary. If no candidate receives a majority of the votes, a Special General Election will be held on May 3, with a ballot featuring the two candidates who received the most votes in the primary.

This election is being conducted under the rules of Proposition 14 (approved by California voters in 2010). Prior to the new law, known as the Top Two Candidates Open Primary Act, if no candidate received a majority of the votes in a special primary election, the candidate from each qualified political party who received the most votes would move on to a special general election. Also before the new open primary rules, every candidate's party registration was listed on ballots; now voters and candidates only indicate a preferred party or "no party preference." More information about the new procedures is at www.sos.ca.gov/elections/Special/pdf/new-open-primary-information.pdf.

The official certified list of candidates, with contact information for each of them, is available at www.sos.ca.gov/elections/Special/sd17/certified-list.pdf.

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