Harris
Cooley
SACRAMENTO (Legal Newsline) - California still is waiting to see who will succeed in the fight to replace Jerry Brown as the state's attorney general.
As of 5:45 a.m. Wednesday Pacific time, Democrat Kamala Harris maintained a slim edge over Republican Steve Cooley with 93 percent of statewide precincts reporting. She had 46 percent of the vote to Cooley's 45 percent.
With nearly seven million votes cast in the race, Harris led Cooley by just 43,536 votes. Four other candidates combined for about 10 percent of the vote.
Cooley led Harris by only one percentage point in a poll released Monday. He led a quieter campaign, though he began an advertising push late in October that criticized Harris' law enforcement history.
The winner will have a chance to either advance or curtail Brown's environmental initiatives. Brown has said greenhouse gases regulations are insurance policies "against catastrophe." Read more here.
Harris, the San Francisco district attorney who was endorsed by President Barack Obama, had filed a complaint with the state's Fair Political Practices Commission last week. It was against an out-of-state Republican fundraising group and dismissed after only one day.
One of the group's contributors is the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Legal Newsline is owned by the Institute for Legal Reform, an affiliate of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. The ad attacked Harris' unwillingness to use the death penalty.
From Legal Newsline: Reach John O'Brien by e-mail at jobrienwv@gmail.com.