Powder Blue Report: It's Fourth Down and Long For Team Harkey

Thursday, April 13, 2006

It's Fourth Down and Long For Team Harkey

The final tally in the race for the 35th Senate District is due in a few hours at 5pm local time here. Team Harkey needs a "Hail Mary" to coin a football term to win this thing. She's down by 289 votes and needs to win the remaining 600 provisional ballots by more than a 2 to 1 margin. It ain't gonna happen. If somehow the gap is narrowed to say within a few dozen votes, I think she should go ahead with a recount. I'm not sure what the law says about this if it's automatic or if the trailing candidate has to request one and pay for it. Short of that, I think Diane needs to give a dignified concession speech and try again in two years to take Harman out in a closed GOP primary. We already know how Mr. Harman is going to vote if he wins this thing so there should be plenty of ammunition to use against him.

*****************5:01 PM UPDATE*******************

Tom Harman is the unofficial winner of the race for the 35th Senate District by 236 votes. Ouch. This one hurts bad.

Here is the final tally

5 Comments:

At 5:08 PM, Anonymous said…

Senate terms are four years.
At 5:16 PM, Unknown said…

Not so fast there anonymous. This was a special election and the term for this seat expires in 2008. Trust me on this. Nice try though.
At 11:43 PM, Anonymous said…

allan -- you're a great guy, but, Harkey had no business winning this one:
1.) Perception she abandons the Dana Pointers who just honored her with their votes a year ago;
2.) Buying a senate seat
3.) spending a lot on $$ on an ego trip
4.) annointed by the machine without having earned her stripes

and then some. the bus didn't work for Arnold, either. The Tentations thing as the victory party? Compared to a down home, quiet and low key party at Harman's? She was naievly starry eyed, and alot of folks took her for a ride. Its kind of pathetic, really.
At 9:07 AM, Unknown said…

I don't vote for personalities, I vote for people who I agree with politically. Tom Harman may be a nice guy, but he is no conservative. Diane stepped up to the plate because no one else did. I give her a lot of credit for that.
At 8:11 PM, Anonymous said…

Diane Harkey would be a horrible vote for Republicans. I live in Dana Point and she just voted to increase our trash fee by 20%. If a fee increase is not a tax then what is it? I think conservatives might not really know enough about her. Their dislike for Harman colored their judgement.