Tony Strickland Continues to Lead in California State Senate Race

Santa Barbara County and Los Angeles County Elections updated their vote totals yesterday whereas Ventura County did not for the California State Senate District 19 race.

According to Flap’s math Republican Tony Strickland lead has shrunken to 1,328 votes versus 2,211 votes this past Tuesday.

The raw figures:

Santa Barbara County:

• Hannah-Beth Jackson: 72,693
• Tony Strickland: 58,166

Los Angeles County:

• Hannah-Beth Jackson: 12,083
• Tony Strickland: 16,493

Ventura County:

• Hannah-Beth Jackson: 115,477
• Tony Strickland: 126,922

Timm Herdt of the Ventura County Star:

Although Jackson has closed the gap, nearly all the ballots in her home county, Democratic-leaning Santa Barbara County, have now been tallied. Strickland will hold on to win unless the approximately 14,000 provisional ballots yet to be counted in Ventura County have a strong Democratic tilt.

Elections officials in Ventura County began processing provisional ballots this week but are not expected to release the first results from those ballots until Monday.

In votes tallied thus far, Strickland has about a 5 percentage lead in the Ventura County portion of the district. Jackson would have to at least reverse that advantage among provisional ballots — perhaps unlikely, but something political observers say is possible given that many such ballots are cast by newly registered voters, who this year were predominantly Democrats.

Hannah-Beth Jackson may have reached her high point in this race, much like Charlie Brown did against Tom McClintock in CA-4 before GOP leaning counties put him over the top. Her campaign continues to exude hope but it is an uphill climb for her.

Stay tuned for the continuing saga as Ventura County updates on Monday.