GOP's Huey Close to CA-36 Runoff

Politico reports:

Republican Craig Huey had a surprise second place finish for a vacant Southern California congressional seat, according to preliminary results for Tuesday’s special election.

But with only a 200-vote margin between them and nearly 10, 000 absentee and provisional votes left to count, the campaign of Democratic Secretary of State Debra Bowen is not giving up.

If Huey remains in second place, he will be the one in the July 12 run-off with Los Angeles City Councilwoman Janice Hahn. That would set up a two-party battle instead of the all-Democratic battle many observers had predicted.

The unofficial final results from the Los Angeles County Clerk’s office showed Huey ahead of Bowen by 206 votes. With 100 percent of precincts reporting, Hahn lead the field, winning 24.66 percent of the vote to Huey’s 21.87 percent and Bowen’s 21.48 percent.

The race is the first under California’s new “jungle primary” system, in which the top two finishers in an open-party primary move to a runoff unless one candidate captures the majority of votes cast. It is for the seat of former Rep. Jane Harman, a conservative Democrat who retired earlier this year to take up the lead position at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.

Bowen aides called media reports that Huey had edged her out premature, and in an early morning statement Bowen campaign manager Dan Chavez said he was confident she would be in second place once all the votes were counted.