LAKEPORT, Calif. – Lakeport attorney Michael Lunas will be Lake County’s next judge.
Lunas, 54, defeated 62-year-old Judy Conard of Lakeport on Tuesday in the race for the Lake County Superior Court Department 1 bench.
With 69 of 70 precincts reporting late Tuesday night, Lunas had 56.6 percent, or 8,538 ballots cast in his favor to Conard’s 6,558 ballots, or 43.4 percent of the vote.
Conard conceded the race earlier in the evening after Lunas continued to widen the lead he had held throughout the night.
The two had emerged from a field of four that had formed early in the year and which initially had included attorney Michael Friel and prosecutor Susan Krones.
Lunas had led in the primary, followed by Conard, with the two set for the November runoff.
Lunas will succeed Judge David Herrick, who is retiring.
The judges who sit on the benches of Departments 2, 3 and 4 – Lake County Superior Court Judges Richard Martin, Andrew Blum and Stephen Hedstrom, respectively – ran unopposed. As a result, they did not appear on either the primary or general ballots, but were declared elected by Registrar of Voters Diane Fridley on Tuesday.
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