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Former Cerritos Mayor Grace Hu.
Cerritos voters resoundingly chose former Mayor Grace Hu to fill one of the open council seats, and a tight race remains between Cerritos Old Guard favorite Chuong Vo and the younger residents choice, Frank Yokoyama.
Votes remain to be counted, both from precincts and vote by mail, and could number over 1,000 additional votes.
Hu tallied 2,879, Vo 2,592, with Yokoyama only 24 votes behind at 2,568.
Another Cerritos Old Guard favorite Bruce Barrows lost by a wide margin, tallying only 1,886 votes.
Newcomer Anantha Ramachandran garnered a respectable 1,088 votes and will certainly be back for the 2019 campaign.
Several irregularities marred the election race, including the interference of an organization, Biz Fed, that has nothing to do with Cerritos.
Neither Biz Fed CEO Terry Hernandez, nor any of their staff, have ever visited Cerritos.
Biz Fed spent thousands trying to prop up Barrows and Vo with two expensive direct mailed campaign pieces that reportedly hit all homes in Cerritos, with the last one hitting mailboxes Monday.
The Commerce based Biz Fed, and their political action committee, touts itself as an organization that helps “advance business interests in LA County.”
Yet the organization endorsed Bruce Barrows and Chong Vo, both of whom have no business experience and have “never signed the front of a check.”
It is unknown if all members of Biz Fed approve of such expenditures.
And the organization could land itself in legal hot water as it appears that they coordinated with candidate Bruce Barrows on certain information in the mailers.
Coordination between a political action committee and a candidate is a violation of Fair Political Practices Commission laws, and carries heavy penalties and fines.
The FPPC dictates that candidates cannot coordinate in any way with a political action committee such as Biz Fed.
But a very personal picture on the mailer shows Barrows posing with his wife and grandkids strongly indicating that Biz Fed coordinated with Barrows, which is an FPPC violation.
WHERE DID BIZ FED GET THIS PICTURE: A picture of Barrows with his wife and grandkids.
HMG-CN will update the voting when available.
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