Orange County District Attorney Race: 2018 Election Results

ORANGE COUNTY, CA — On Wednesday, Orange County Supervisor Todd Spitzer appeared to have unseated District Attorney Tony Rackauckas, his former boss, ending a particularly bitter campaign. Results are still being tallied, and a formal victory has not yet been announced by the Orange County Registrar of Voters.

With all precincts reporting, Spitzer had nearly 53 percent of the vote, compared to 47 percent for the incumbent. It was unclear how many provisional, mail or questioned ballots remained to be counted, but as of early Wednesday, Spitzer had a roughly 30,000-vote lead.

Spitzer, the original heir apparent to Rackauckas until he was fired by that office in 2010, has lately been one of the Orange County District Attorney's biggest critics. Both have traded verbal spars over ethics and corruption ever since parting ways.

The Orange County Registrar of Voters will continue counting results to all county races, including that for Orange County District Attorney until the final results are released.

Rackauckas, elected in 1998, is serving his fourth term.

His office has been fraught with controversy on high profile cases, ever since allegations of prosecutorial misconduct, most notably in the case against Scott Dekraai, the worst mass killer in the county's history.

Rackauckas' office was booted off the prosecution of Dekraai when a judge found outrageous governmental misconduct in the handling of jailhouse informants in Dekraai's case. Dekraai, who pleaded guilty, was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole when an Orange County Superior Court judge removed the death sentence as an option due to continued allegations of misuse of jailhouse snitches.

Now Rackauckas' office is fighting another legal battle involving allegations of misconduct in the prosecution of Josh Waring, the son of a former "Real Housewives of Orange County," who is charged with attempted murder. An Orange County sheriff's contractor has acknowledged in the Waring case that a glitch in an upgrade of software led authorities to improperly record phone calls of jail inmates to their attorneys.

Rackauckas defended his work as D.A., highlighting what he calls aggressive efforts by his office to crack down on gang members and human traffickers and pioneering advancements in the use of DNA evidence in criminal prosecutions.

Rackauckas's team was denied the right to try the Golden State Killer in Orange County--also known as the Original Night Stalker, whose victims ranged from Sacramento to Southern California over a generation. Multiple jurisdictions were involved in the suspect's capture in Northern California, though Orange County DNA programs made great strides in identifying Joseph James DeAngelo as the suspect in that case.

Spitzer has touted his career in public service, serving not just as a county supervisor and a prosecutor, but also spending time in the state Assembly and as a school teacher and school board member.

He said he wants to restore "faith and trust in our law enforcement and justice system." Something that Orange County will be watching.

City News Service, with contributions by Ashley Ludwig, Patch Editor.

Photo via Shutterstock