State Assembly, Senate Races Still Too Close to Call Outright Winners

The race for the 41st Assembly District has become one of the tightest races in the California primary election so far.

Though two clear front runners have emerged, the margin separating Democrat Chris Holden and Republican Donna Lowe was just 500 votes as of about 2 a.m. today with 38 percent of precincts reporting.

Holden held 25.8 percent of the vote, and Lowe held 24.3.

With more than 60 percent of the votes left to be counted, even the candidates who were trailing still remained within striking distance of the two frontrunners: Republican Ed Colton was less than 1,500 votes away (20 percent of the vote) from taking second place.

However, a place on the November ballot might have been out of reach for the final two Democrats in the race. Victoria Rusnak and Michael Cacciotti held just 15 and 14.9 percent of the vote, respectively.

The tight primary race foretells of a tough campaign for Holden and Lowe for the next five months.

The state senate race for the 25th District was also close: Democrat Carol Liu led with 51 percent of the vote, just 4,000 votes ahead of Republican Gilbert Gonzales who took 43 percent of the vote. 

Rep. Grace Napolitano's primary fight was much closer than the fundraising battle would have suggested; her Republican opponent, David Miller, was outspent and outfundraised by Napolitano by a nearly 7-to-1 ratio but came within 2,000 votes of the representative.

However, Napolitano's Democratic base was also split somewhat, with Democrat Bill Gonzalez likely taking some of the votes that would normally have gone to the incumbent. With 50 percent of precincts reporting, Gonzalez had took 11 percent of the vote.

Still, Napolitano may face a tougher reelection fight on the November ballot than previously expected.

Rep. Judy Chu handily won the primary for the 27th District, taking in 20,000 more votes than her closest competitor, Rep. Jack Orswell.

Check back with patch later for comments from all of the campaigns still left in the running for the 2012 campaign.