Harris Takes Lead Over Cooley In Attorney General's Race

Los Angeles - San Francisco District Attorney Kamala Harris took the lead today in the race for attorney general over Los Angeles County District Attorney Steve Cooley.

Harris, a Democrat, leads by 5,576 votes, 0.1 percent, according to the vote count released today by the Secretary of State's Office.

Cooley, a Republican, led by 11,400 votes at the start of today's counting of vote-by-mail, provisional and damaged ballots, then had his lead grow to 14,174 votes.

Harris leads, 4,044,927-4,039,351, 45.9 percent-45.8 percent.

Vote counting is scheduled to continue over the weekend.

Officials with both campaigns predicted victory today.

"We believe once all the remaining ballots are counted, Kamala Harris will be the next attorney general," Harris campaign manager Brian Brokaw told City News Service.

"What you're seeing in this vote count is a weeks-long replay of how election night ended up. Steve Cooley had the early lead, thanks to Republican-leaning counties reporting their results early. As the night went on, Kamala Harris took the lead."

Said Kevin Spillane, a senior consultant with the Cooley campaign: "They've predicted victory before. We're hopeful."

Spillane said he thought the race would remain undecided until Thanksgiving or the Dec. 3 deadline for counties to provide their counts to the Secretary of State's Office.

"It's going to be a very close race," Spillane said. "It probably will be decided by 30,000 votes or less."

When polls closed Nov. 2, Cooley declared victory, but by early Nov. 3, Harris led by almost 15,000 votes. However, with thousands of ballots remaining to be counted, the race was too close to call.

Under state law, county registrars of voters must complete the vote counting by Nov. 30.