BY MELODY XU
Daily Post Correspondent
Redwood City Mayor Giselle Hale edged into second place for the state Assembly seat being given up by Kevin Mullin. Hale passed Republican Mark Gilham, who had been in second place since election night.
If the result holds, Hale will face San Mateo Councilwoman Diane Papan in the November election. Both are Democrats, with Hale known as the more progressive of the two.
Hale’s already declaring victory in the primary, from which the top two vote-getters move on to November. The ballot listed seven candidates.
“These results show that despite their best efforts, San Mateo County voters cannot be bought by Big Oil and PG&E,” Hale said in a tweet Friday, referencing the independent expenditure committees that campaigned for Papan. “Together, we’ll prove that they can’t buy this Assembly seat in November!”
About 8,000 ballots still need to be counted, which comes to 4% of total ballots cast in the 21st District Assembly race.
Hale and Gilham couldn’t be reached for comment.On election night, Gilham had about a 3 percentage point lead over Hale and was in the second place position.
But since then, the county has been counting additional ballots that have arrived, shifting the numbers.
As of Friday, Papan stands at 41.71% of the vote, Hale at 19.74% and Gilham — now in a close third — at 19.57%.In terms of votes, Papan has 38,304 votes, Hale 18,128 and Gilham 17,971. That means 157 votes separate Hale and Gilham.
Earlier in the week, Gilham led her by 26 votes.
The Republican third place candidate has not attempted to recover any of his challenged or unsigned ballots. Had he done so, and he still has time, he could easily move back into second place.
Should Papan want to save $2M of Realtor donations by facing an Republican in the general election, she could spend two afternoons collecting signatures to produce 158 qualified Gilham ballots. Hale could stll turn the tide on a very weak primary performance through her Josh Becker, Carlos Bolanos and Anna Eshoo support.