SACRAMENTO, California — Assemblymember Kevin McCarty will become the next mayor of Sacramento after defeating newcomer Flojaune “Flo” Cofer in a fierce battle over homelessness and public safety policy.
Cofer on Tuesday released a statement conceding the race, saying she called McCarty on Monday night to “offer my congratulations” and that the two “had the first of many very forthright conversations about the future of Sacramento.”
The assemblymember declared victory last week, but Cofer waited to comment on the results until the vote-counting concluded. McCarty won by just 1,938 votes, 50.5 percent to 49.5 percent, according to the final tally posted by the county on Tuesday.
“We have a responsibility to stay involved and carry our vision forward,” Cofer said in her statement. “I am committed to supporting this new administration because their success is our success.”
McCarty, a Democrat who represented Sacramento in the Capitol for nearly a decade, was the more moderate candidate in the race to succeed Mayor Darrell Steinberg and had been expected to win. Cofer, a progressive, grew her public profile as an activist in the wake of the police shooting of Stephon Clark.
The assemblymember defeated two other more moderate Democrats in a very close primary. Cofer ran to his left in the general election, allowing him to attack her on her more liberal stances.
After Cofer suggested locating sanctioned homeless campsites in “underutilized parks,” McCarty’s supporters used the position to claim she wanted to put them in the city’s most popular green spaces.
Cofer, on the other hand, tied McCarty to Steinberg, saying the assemblymember wanted to continue a failed tactic of repeatedly sweeping homeless encampments.
