It may be recorded as one of the most stunning electoral comebacks in the history of San Diego area politics.
Former Assemblyman Juan Vargas, who just two weeks ago refused to concede the race while Assembywoman Mary Salas was declaring victory and seemingly pulling away, now leads his opponent by six votes in the race for the Democratic nomination in the 40th State Senate District.
The winner will face Republican Brian Hendry in the November run-off.
San Diego Rostra has been tracking the race all week, with Jim Sills posting breaking news updates as each of the three counties overlapping the senate district have revised their tallies with remaining absentee and provisional ballots.
"Completing an astonishing week-long comeback," writes Sills, "Juan Vargas today claimed the LEAD over rival Mary Salas in their classic primary."
See the entire breaking news story posted late this afternoon.
The Rostra post was followed by on-line stories by the Union-Tribune and Capitol Weekly.
June 26th, 2010 at 12:00 am
The Secretary of State’s website (last updated today at 6:32 AM)still has Salas ahead by 10 votes, but, more importantly, voters in Riverside County are going to Court next week to try to get processed some 12,500 ballots, countywide, mailed on time, but misplaced by the Postal Service.
In the votes counted so far, Salas carried the Riverside County portion of the SD40 so this court case could make-or-break her candidacy.
June 26th, 2010 at 12:00 am
You may find that the SoS vote tally for each of the counties is still slightly lower than the county ROV’s have, as the state seems to lag behind by sometimes 36 hours. Yes, the Rostra story noted the Riverside vote situation. Agreed with you, keeping in mind that the Riverside portion of SD 40 is small, so very few of 12,500 votes may be in the district, but significant to this race nonetheless. In the most significant counties congruent with the district… Vargas leads in Imperial and continues to gain on Salas in San Diego, the latter being the portion that is hurting her the most.
June 26th, 2010 at 12:00 am
Good questions raised. Barry Jantz has covered many of them,
and here are a few more tidbits.
(1) The Secretary of State site has still not added the
Thursday update by Imperial County….. Vargas got 20
votes In Imperial then, compared to just 4 for Ms. Salas.
You’ll see that converts a 10-vote Salas lead district-wide
into a 6-vote Vargas edge, (24,079 to 24,073).
(2) Vargas has been gaining in ALL 3 COUNTIES during
the late counting…. On Wednesday, June 23, Riverside
county’s most recent report had 157 new votes for Vargas,
and just 109 ballots for Salas.
During the last week, Vargas’ lead rose in Imperial county
from 809 votes to 927….while Salas’ edge here in San Diego
fell from 928 ballots to 815.
(3) The 40th state senate portion is home to 8.2% of all
Riverside registered voters. So about 1,000 of the disputed
mail ballots should be in the 40th, and roughly 450 of those
would likely be from registered Democrats. That would be
enough to have a major impact if a Judge orders they be
accepted.
(4) There are also a few hundred votes left to count in San
Diego County.
(5) The possible beneficiary of the drawn-out Democratic
primary is Republican nominee Brian Hendry, as Barry
Jantz has pointed out.
June 28th, 2010 at 12:00 am
UPDATE… June 28, 2010
San Diego county tabulated 90 more ballots in this race today, and
they divided evenly… 45 for Juan Vargas, and 45 for Mary Salas.
That means Juan Vargas remains 6 votes ahead, by a score of
24,124 to 24,118 district-wide.
June 30th, 2010 at 12:00 am
UPDATE…. June 30
As already tweeted by my “SD Rostra” colleague Barry Jantz, San Diego County
tabulated 22 more votes in this contest today, and they broke 14 for Juan Vargas
to 8 ballots for Mary Salas.
The new grand totals in SD 40 are… Vargas… 24,138…Salas…24,126.