Democrat Janice Hahn appears headed to a second round of balloting for the vacant 36th Congressional District seat, though her challenger for the July 12 runoff is yet to be determined.
Hahn, a member of the Los Angeles City Council, was the top vote-getter in yesterday's special election to replace Democratic Rep. Jane Harman, who retired in late February. With 100 percent of precincts reporting, Hahn led the field of 16 candidates with 24.66 percent of the vote.
Hahn's chief Democratic rival, Secretary of State Debra Bowen, trailed conservative website publisher Craig Huey for the No. 2 spot by roughly 200 votes. Huey, who lent his campaign $500,000, posted an edge of less than one percentage point over the Marina Del Rey Democrat, leading 21.87 percent to 21.48 percent.
If Huey's lead stands, the results will be considered a major upset for Bowen, a former state legislator from the area who was widely considered a front-runner in the Democratic-leaning district. Many had expected the contest to result in the first same-party runoff since Proposition 14, the state's new top-two primary system, took effect this year.
But the results were far from final -- the Los Angeles County registrar pegs the number of uncounted ballots at about 9,800. Counting of those ballots was set to begin this morning.
See the full results at this link.
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