GOP oilman leading tonight in Calif. state Senate special primary election

[Newsjock]

Source: Associated Press

Republican Assemblyman Sam Blakeslee was leading in early returns Tuesday in a special election that could help tip the state Senate's power balance.

Blakeslee had 49 percent of the vote and former Democratic Assemblyman John Laird 41 percent, with a quarter of precincts reporting in the Senate district spanning five counties along California's central coast.

... If no candidate gets more than 50 percent of the vote, all four candidates will meet again in an Aug. 17 runoff election.

... If Laird wins, he would bring Democrats within a single vote of the two-thirds majority needed to pass tax increases through the Senate.

Blakeslee was trying to overcome his past as a former Exxon Mobil Corp. employee who supported limited expansion of offshore oil drilling.

Read more:http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2010/06/19/state/n100027D45.DTL&tsp=1

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Official live results here: http://vote.sos.ca.gov/returns/special/1559.htm

[Frances]

1. My husband and I mailed our absentee ballots

about 2 weeks ago; we voted for Laird

[pinto]

2. Still the same basic split with ~ 33% of the vote in (save S. Cruz County).

32.32% (117 of 362) precincts partially
or fully reporting as of June 22, 2010, 9:37 p.m.

John Laird (Dem) 43,661 40.90%
Sam Blakeslee (Rep) 52,435 49.12%

http://vote.sos.ca.gov/returns/special/1559.htm

[KamaAina]

3. "all four candidates will meet again in an Aug. 17 runoff election"?

Wouldn't a runoff, by definition, involve only the top two??

In any case, a low-turnout special election runoff for a relatively low-profile office, where the repuke almost got over outright to begin with , does not look terribly promising. :(