Calaveras County supervisor candidate dies while door-knocking

A candidate for a Northern California county supervisor seat died on Monday after suffering a fall while knocking on voters’ doors, his campaign said. 

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Bruce Giudici, a 68-year-old Valley Springs resident running for the District 5 seat on the Calaveras County Board of Supervisors, was campaigning when he fell. 

Giudici and two campaign volunteers were about to drive up a steep driveway in a rural area of Valley Springs before he left the car to walk up the hill, Carrie Biggs-Adams, a spokesperson for the campaign, told SFGATE. After Giudici didn’t return after about 10 minutes, the volunteers went to check on him and eventually saw an ambulance and fire trucks drive in, she said. 

The resident called 911 after discovering that Giudici fell and hit his head, though it’s unknown how he fell, Biggs-Adams said. Giudici was transported to the nearest main hospital approximately 30 miles away. However, he suffered a “massive” brain bleed and succumbed to his injuries, according to Biggs-Adams. 

Giudici’s name will remain on the ballot because, according to California law, the deadline to remove a deceased candidate from the November election ballot has already passed. Before his death, election results from the June 2 primary show that Giudici was in the lead with 1,061 combined in-person and mail votes, while his opponent Clyde Clapp, who had previously served on the board from 2017 to 2018, secured 1,023 votes. Incumbent Supervisor Benjamin Stopper had 792 votes.

Carrie Biggs-Adams said his staff has decided to continue actively campaigning for the remainder of the election. If Giudici wins, the seat will be vacant and appointed by the person who is elected California governor, his campaign said. 

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According to his website, Giudici was a financial analyst who, if elected, had planned to prioritize budgeting, public safety, wildfire preparation, road conditions and water rates. 

“Bruce was passionate about preventing Clyde Clapp from returning to the Board of Supervisors,” his campaign wrote in a Facebook post. “Bruce’s fight will not end today. We intend to continue his campaign and honor Bruce’s wishes by working to elect him in November.”

His campaign called his death a “heartbreaking loss” and said he died while “doing exactly what he wanted to be doing in this moment: talking and listening to voters and fighting for the future of District 5.”