A California candidate who died more than two months before Election Day could still win a seat on the Calaveras County Board of Supervisors. Bruce Giudici held a substantial lead over former Supervisor Clyde Clapp in the initial November 3rd count. His supporters continued campaigning after his death, with a victory putting the appointment of a replacement in the governor’s hands.
The District 5 contest went to a November runoff after Giudici and Clapp finished ahead of incumbent Supervisor Benjamin Stopper in June. Giudici received 1,061 primary votes, compared with Clapp’s 1,023 and Stopper’s 792. Clapp had previously served on the board from 2017 to 2018, while Giudici was a Valley Springs resident whose professional background included financial analysis.
Giudici suffered a serious head injury after falling while campaigning door-to-door on August 30th. He was taken to San Joaquin General Hospital and died the following day. His campaign team subsequently met and decided to keep working toward his election, even though he would never be able to take the seat himself.
As myMotherLode reported on November 4th, the initial election-night tally gave Giudici 1,459 votes, or approximately 57%, against Clapp’s 1,092 votes, or approximately 43%. That put the late candidate ahead by 367 votes. Additional mail ballots remained outstanding, leaving the result subject to further counting.
Campaign representative Carrie Biggs-Adams described the circumstances of the accident to SFGATE. Giudici had left a vehicle to walk up a steep driveway while two volunteers waited. When he failed to return after about 10 minutes, they went looking for him and saw emergency vehicles arriving. A resident had discovered him injured and called 911.
In its earlier reporting, myMotherLode said campaign volunteers intended to “carry on Bruce’s fight.” Their statement specifically identified opposition to his remaining challenger as a reason to continue. “Bruce was passionate about preventing Clyde Clapp from returning to the Board of Supervisors,” the campaign said. Central Sierra Broadcasting had also recorded an interview with Giudici shortly before his death for a planned candidate forum.
Watch KCRA’s report on Giudici’s death here:
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Giudici’s work in the community extended beyond his campaigns. His obituary describes accounting and organizational work for Catholic Charities, San Joaquin Head Start and the Amador Tuolumne Community Action Agency, among other organizations. He earned undergraduate and master’s degrees in agricultural economics at UC Davis. He also founded the Valley Food Coalition and served on nonprofit boards, including the Emergency Food Bank and Stockton Homeless Shelter.
The broadcaster initially paused the candidate forum following his death. His campaign told the outlet that Giudici had spoken positively about the interview and likely would have wanted the recording released. The station announced plans to make it available online. Clapp had not responded to invitations to participate, leaving Giudici as the forum’s sole interviewee.
Meanwhile, Clerk-Recorder Rebecca Turner reported approximately 4,500 mail ballots still awaiting counting countywide, only some of which would concern District 5. Those included ballots collected from drop boxes, vote centers and Election Day mail. Ballots postmarked by November 3rd and received by November 10th would also continue to be processed and counted.
Featured image credit: screengrab from the embedded video.