[More Hahn election night photos]
Many seasoned political observers had predicted that Tuesday’s special election would propel two Democrats, Los Angeles Councilwoman Janice Hahn and California Secretary of State Debra Bowen, into a runoff election to replace Congresswoman Jane Harman in the heavily Democratic 36th District.
Hahn performed as expected, finishing first. But on Wednesday morning Republican Craig Huey, a Rancho Palos Verdes businessman, stood in second place, holding a slim 206-vote lead over third-place Bowen for the other runoff slot, with thousands of votes yet to be counted.
On Wednesday morning Hahn held a commanding 25 percent of the vote, with Huey at 21.87 percent and Bowen at 21.48 percent. Democrat Marcy Winograd followed with 10 percent.
Winograd was followed by three beach cities Republicans. Redondo Beach Mayor Mike Gin came in fifth with 8 percent of the vote, Redondo City Attorney Mike Webb came in sixth with 6 percent, and Hermosa Beach Councilman Kit Bobko finished seventh with 4 percent.
Libertarian Steve Collett of Hermosa finished eighth with less than 2 percent of the vote.
In a Wednesday statement on his campaign website, Webb endorsed Huey “assuming he remains in the July 12 runoff election.”
Huey’s deputy campaign manager, Hope Howell, said her candidate’s strong finish did not come as a surprise.
“We did expect it. We had a strategy and that’s what we followed,” she said. “We firmly expected to be in a runoff, it was not a surprise to us.”
Howell did not discuss strategy in detail, but said Huey appealed to voters “who are ready for change.” During the campaign, Huey called for spending and tax cuts, and an end to government waste and duplication of services.
Both the Huey and Bowen camps said they expect most of the yet-uncounted 9,000-plus votes to go their way. Election officials have said the vote counting could be completed by Friday.
“It’s a close race with us and Debra, but we firmly expect it to go in our favor,” Howell said.
“This has been a very spirited campaign and it remains very close,” Bowen campaign manager Dan Chavez said the morning after the election.
“There are 9,811 ballots that still need to be processed, more than enough to make up the difference. We are confident Debra Bowen will be in the runoff,” Chavez said.
“We always knew it would be a very close race,” Bowen spokesman Luis Vizcaino said. “We anticipated a very low turnout for the special election, and with 16 candidates in what is now called a ‘jungle primary,’ you have to run against all 16.”
“Jungle primary” refers to the free-for-all voting that pits each candidate against all the others regardless of party affiliation.
Vizcaino said a comeback by Bowen “would not be without precedent,” pointing to last November’s race for state attorney general, in which Republican Steve Cooley initially declared victory, only to concede defeat two weeks later, after the remaining votes were counted.
Vizcaino criticized Hahn for late mailers that questioned Bowen’s commitment to health care and the environment, pointing out that Bowen was the only candidate endorsed by the Sierra Club and League of Conservation Voters.
Vizcaino said Huey’s $500,000 loan to his own campaign – which made up almost his entire financial war chest – helped “consolidate GOP votes.” ER
