Election 2012: Incumbents Take Early Primary Lead, Opponents Scramble for Second

Congresswomen Grace Napolitano and Judy Chu were both predicted to crusie to early primary election wins Tuesday night. With a small percentage of precincts now reporting, that outcome has been made more likely.

Chu may have already locked up her place on November's election ballot, leading her closest opponent, Republican Jack Orswell, by more than 8,000 votes with 8.6 percent of precincts reporting in the 32nd District race.

Napolitano, on the other hand, still has a close night ahead of her, leading Republican David Miller by fewer than 1,000 votes: Napolitano has 7,347 votes to Miller's 6,095 with 5.4 percent of precincts reporting in the 27th District race.

Even if Miller somehow upsets his opponent, who has heavily outspent and out fundraised him at this point in the race, both he and Napolitano will almost certainly be on the November ballot as opponents; the only other candidate in this early primary race, Democrat Bill Gonzalez, has garnered fewer than 2,000 votes so far.

The state senate race for District 25 has follwed a similar pattern to this, with two candidates emerging as frontrunners with one falling behind severly. 

Incumbent Democrat Carol Liu and Republican Gilbert Gonzalez have 17,000 and 13,000 votes, respectively, while Democrat Ameenah Fuller has fewer than 2,000 votes with 8.7 percent of precincts reporting.

The real race so far has been in the state assembly election for the 41st District, in which no clear frontrunner has emerged.

Democract Chris Holden has the biggest lead, with 4,572 votes. The rest of his opponents remain with a few hundred votes of each other early in this contest.