Santa Maria Sun / News

Close, but no cigar

BY COLIN RIGLEY

In the June 22 primary for the 15th District California Senate seat, San Luis Obispo Assemblyman Sam Blakeslee garnered the most votes in the district—which spans SLO, Santa Barbara, Santa Clara, Monterey, and Santa Cruz counties—but not enough to avoid an Aug. 17 runoff. With thousands of uncounted ballots and a paper-thin margin between Blakeslee and a win, however, the results were far from final.

According to the California Secretary of State, Blakeslee had 49.7 percent of the vote. If any one candidate had won 50 percent plus one vote, he would have won outright and avoided a runoff, which will include all four candidates: Blakeslee, John Laird, Jim Fitzgerald, and Mark Hinkle.

A Laird win would put Senate Democrats just one vote shy of a two-thirds majority in Sacramento.

Laird received about 41 percent of the vote. Fitzgerald, a Nipomo independent, received about 6 percent of the vote; and Hinkle, the Bay Area Libertarian, received about 3 percent.

Voter turnout was estimated at about 30 percent in most of the counties in the district.

The primary is estimated to cost the district about $2 million total. If the election does, in fact, go to an August runoff, the total cost is estimated at about $1 million.