College of the Canyon governing board member Scott Wilk looks headed for the state Assembly, capturing 57.8 percent of the votes with 75.7 percent of districts reporting, in his race against Edward Headington for California’s 38th District race.

Among his early priorities, Wilk said he wanted to find like-minded politicians on either side of the aisle who are willing to help him attack some of what he considers misspent funds in Sacramento.

“California has 12 percent of the nation’s population, but 32 percent of the nation’s welfare caseload,” Wilk said.

Wilk said while he wanted Proposition 30 to fail, he was also unhappy with the fact that if it did, Gov. Jerry Brown’s alternative meant billions of dollars in trigger cuts to the state’s educational system.

Proposition 30 calls for income- and sales-tax increases in lieu of massive cuts to education, among other state services. It was carrying 53.6 percent of the vote, as of 3:45 a.m. Wednesday.

Headington, a longtime San Fernando Valley resident who runs Burbank-based Headington Media Group, compared the race to a prize fight Tuesday as the early results rolled in.

“This has been a Rocky Balboa candidacy,” he said, while awaiting the final results.

Assemblyman Cameron Smyth, who is the 38th District’s representative until the end of the year when he will be termed out, endorsed Wilk.

Smyth said his first lessons as an assemblyman involved realizing the scope of issues facing a state as populous and diverse as California.

Smyth said Wilk’s experience, and an open-minded approach, would serve the assemblyman-elect well.

During Smyth’s six years in office, he was named chair of the committee on local government policy, the only Republican to chair a major policy committee in the state’s Democrat-controlled Legislature in the last 10 years.

“I would say, ‘Don’t pigeonhole yourself,’” Smyth said, when asked if he had any advice for the winning candidate before the results came in Tuesday. “And truly put the state and your district first, and be willing to work with anyone else who shares that philosophy.”