Assembly Seat Won by Green Party - Los Angeles Times
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Assembly Seat Won by Green Party

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<i> Associated Press</i>

Green Party candidate Audie Elizabeth Bock pulled off a narrow upset as she won the 16th Assembly District seat over former Oakland Mayor Elihu Harris in a runoff election Tuesday.

With all 153 precincts reporting, Bock had 14,357 votes, or 50.5% of the vote. Harris had 14,065 votes, or 49.4%.

Harris, who held the Assembly seat before he served as mayor for two terms, defeated fellow Democrats Frank D. Russo and Enrique Palacios to face Bock in the runoff.

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The 16th Assembly District seat became open when incumbent Don Perata was elected to the state Senate in September.

Bock is a part-time community college teacher.

The election was seen by San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown and some other African American leaders as a crucial battleground in efforts to boost the number of blacks in the Assembly, especially with a veteran like Harris, who served there from 1978 to 1990.

When he left, the 80-member chamber had six other African Americans. Today, it has four, all from the Los Angeles area.

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