Assemblyman Heath Flora will represent California’s 12th Assembly District for another two years. 

The Ripon Republican, who defeated fellow Republican Ken Vogel in 2016 to earn a spot in the lower house of the California legislature, easily dispatched his Democratic challenger on Tuesday to defend his office for the first time. 

Flora, who was a volunteer firefighter prior to being elected, currently holds a commanding 61.6 to 38.4 lead over Robert D. Chase – a lead of 19,216 votes. 

And Flora isn’t the only person in the fire service who appears to have secured a seat in Tuesday’s Gubernatorial election. 

Lathrop-Manteca Fire District Chief Gene Neely is currently the leading vote getter for the Banta Elementary School District Board of Education – holding a 14-vote lead over the second place candidate, Joshua Anderson. Anderson is currently holding onto his seat by only 5 votes to candidate, Frank I. Silva. 

The Banta Elementary School District, which includes River Islands in its boundaries, is currently in the process of negotiating the creation of the Banta Unified School District with Tracy Unified that will allow the district to build its first high school – which organizers are hoping to have open by 2022. 

There were no contested races for either the Lathrop-Manteca Fire District Board of Directors or the Ripon Consolidated Fire District Board of Directors during this election cycle, so no election results were available for those offices. 

To contact reporter Jason Campbell email jcampbell@mantecabulletin.com or call 209.249.3544.