Now that former California state senator Aisha Wahab, D-Hayward, is officially a member of Congress, her state office will remain empty until after the November general election.
Wahab was sworn in Wednesday after beating BART Board Director Melissa Hernandez in a special election Aug. 18 to replace Erik Swalwell as California’s Congressional District 14 representative for the rest of his term this year.
Swalwell resigned from Congress and dropped out of the California gubernatorial election earlier this year amid accusations of sexual assault. He has denied all allegations.
Wahab and Hernandez will face off again in the Nov. 3 election for the same seat to represent the district for the upcoming two-year term.
According to state law, when a vacancy occurs in a legislative office after the close of the nomination period — which was Aug. 7 for the November election — in the final year of the term of office, no special election shall be held.
“She is now in her current seat, her former state senate district is up for election in November and there’s two candidates running for that,” said interim Alameda County Registrar of Voters Cynthia Cornejo.
The candidates are Republican Linda Price, who doesn’t list any previously held political offices on her website, and Democrat Scott Sakakihara, a city councilmember from Union City.
District 10 includes all or parts of several East and South Bay cities, including Hayward, Fremont, Milpitas, Sunnyvale and Santa Clara.
Cornejo said voters’ guides will start going out by mail on Sept. 24 and ballots start going out on Oct. 5.
“We’re definitely on our way, with getting the word out that voters should be expecting ballot materials in the mail very shortly,” she said.
More information about the District 10 candidates can be found on their websites.
