SD 34: Correa Pulls Ahead
Another day of vote counting down in Orange County's 34th Senate district has turned the race upside down-- with Democrat Lou Correa, who had appeared to lose on election night, now holding a 282 vote lead over Republican Lynn Daucher.
Daucher led in the unofficial returns by as many as 833 votes at one point. But as the counting of absentee and provisional ballots has moved forward this week, her lead started to dwindle. Yesterday, she was ahead by 147 votes.
Everyone knew this was going to be a close race between Correa, an OC supervisor and former assemblymember, and Daucher, a termed-out assemblymember. And several million dollars was spent on this race, which will probably end up being the most expensive legislative contest of 2006.
The ultimate winner certainly won't shift the main balance of power in the upper house; should Correa hold on for an official win, the tally would still be 25 Democrats and 15 Republicans (this seat was formerly held by termed out Democrat Joe Dunn). If Daucher holds on, the only discernible change from a macro perspective would be that major votes, like a state budget, would need three GOP votes in the Senate... not two.
