Harris increases lead over Cooley in attorney general race

San Francisco Dist. Atty. Kamala Harris’ lead in the race for California attorney general continued to grow Tuesday, making a possible comeback appear increasingly difficult for her rival, Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Steve Cooley.

Harris, the Democratic nominee, led by 31,000 votes Tuesday evening with more than 555,000 uncounted ballots still left to be processed across California, according to a Times review of updated vote counts in all 58 counties.

Working against Cooley, the Republican, is the fact that some 350,000 of the remaining ballots are in counties that Harris carried on election day.

Perhaps as an indication of the vote trend, Cooley’s campaign aides over the past five days have been filing complaints about what they allege is bias toward Harris on the part of Los Angeles County elections officials.

Cooley aides have accused county officials of having private meeting with Harris campaign representatives. Cooley’s campaign attorney also criticized procedures for reviewing ballots, saying election workers are not taking adequate time to verify voter signatures on the unprocessed ballots.

Cooley has personally called Los Angeles County Registrar Dean Logan twice, Logan confirmed Tuesday.

Harris campaign spokesman Brian Brokaw called the allegations an attempt by the Cooley campaign to disqualify voters in Los Angeles County, where Harris has a 14% advantage in the vote.

"It’s pretty transparent what they are trying to do. They are doing everything they can to reduce the number of provisional ballots in L.A.," Brokaw said.

Cooley spokesman Kevin Spillane denied that accusation, saying the campaign is trying to ensure that Harris and her team of monitors -- who include government employee union representatives -- at the county registrar of voters don’t have an undue influence on the vote tally.

Logan said no private meetings have been held, and elections workers have followed all state laws when it comes to verifying ballots. Still, in response to the Cooley campaign’s concerns, he said he reminded workers to make thorough checks on all ballots and to keep the process transparent.

"We recognize that there’s a lot of tension and emotion when you have a contest this close," Logan said.

The race has been one of the closest statewide contests in decades, with the lead see-sawing between Harris and Cooley since the Nov. 2 election as county workers throughout California started the laborious process of verifying and tallying up an estimated 2.3 million late-arriving vote-by-mail and provisional ballots.

-- Phil Willon

RELATED:

Early returns put Cooley ahead in attorney general race

Harris claims narrow lead over Cooley

Cooley regains lead in attorney general contest

Comments

[bob cuomo]

Granted, there are still many ballots to count, but it sounds as if that pompous jerk Cooley and his people don't know how to be gracious losers.

[SVT]

Republicans can never accept losing elections. This reminds me of Florida 2000.

[3825You]

She's a lady...
Harris defends and supports big-time
to our Constitution...
She's a lady...is exactly what this state
needs.

[Rocco]

Put him away Harris, put him away.

[Bob]

I really hope Kamala wins. She will be a lot tougher on corporations and polluters than Cooley would be.

[Kevin]

Thank GOD! The thought of that man being AG makes me shudder!

[jubilee shine]

down goes cooley

[Super90]

Is it a surprise that Cooley is widely disliked in LA, where he has been DA for the last 10 years? It is not.

[former USC Professor]

Sounds like Cooley is a sore loser!

[Rockie]

Neither Jerry Brown nor Kamala Harris will be willing to defend Proposition 8 before the Ninth Circuit. That leaves the Mormon Church twisting in the wind.

[batteredbypd]

Best News I've Heard ALL Day!!!! Get 'em KAMALA!!! Crooked Cooley has go to GO!

[Bigwill]

"The very low pay that I'm getting from LA county" $150,000 lets see how much Mr. Cooley can make in the private sector.

[Mitchell Wrap]

Paging Alan Barcelona. Alan Barcelona.......please report to DOJ for your regularly scheduled work day on January 4. Alan Barcelona that gave nearly $2 million in PAC and IEC money to nutMeg and Cooley. Money from an illegal state employee union. Penal Code 146 c....but you knew that Alan, so just report to the Internal Affairs at DOJ after you mapquest it to find your way to the office you haven't reported to in 17 years while collecting full salary and benefits and accruing a public safety pension for working at CSLEA full time.

[Citizen]

Mr. Cooley, you lost the race. Why? 1) Your personal vendetta against medical marijuana runs contrary to California voters' beliefs. 2) In this time of struggling economies and budgets, you didn't bat an eye before admitting you'd take a pension AND a salary. You're right, though, you DID earn it. Happy retirement, civilian.

[Hannah Katz]

You forgot to mention what a tremendous help Senator Al Franken and his staff have been to Ms. Harris. Mr. Cooley was leading until the Franken team started finding bags of ballots in broom closets, etc.

[JasonSabio]

Thank God L.A. finally woke up to the ridiculousness that WAS Steve Cooley.

[sandawg]

Welcome to the 21st Century, Cooley, where medical marijuana is supported by over 83% of the nation, let alone California. Cooley was raiding medical marijuana dispensaries like he's Don Quixote or Yosemite Sam. Oops. Go hit the liquor bottle, you crook.

[guiseppe46]

I see that most of these postings are made by the group that still believes OJ didn't do it!

[Hypatia]

THANK GOD/DESS for small favours!

[Jack]

Ha ha. Trying to discount all the ballots in L.A. The way things are looking, even if we threw out all the remaining ballots in L.A. County, he would still lose. What a baby. Just leave, Cooley. All those backward redneck inland counties weren't enough to carry you.

[wheaton]

Modeling the remaining ballots by county according to those already counted shows she will win the race by 30,000 - 40,000 votes. This has not changed in over since last Friday. While there some votes in his counties, they are offset by those in hers, and there are not enough left for him to overcome her lead.

[feizylawoffice]

when you are living alone then you should have to take Personal injury attorney with the guidance from layer.

[Matt]

It's good that Cooley's not going to be CA's AG but L.A. still has to deal w/ him...uugh

[Whatishappeningnow?]

Well, one thing is for sure, we are going to absolutely hit rock bottom before we can be on top again. What a sad stat of affairs.