In the state assembly race to replace Mike Feuer, Richard Bloom was ahead of Betsy Butler by a scant 218 votes out of just over 138,000 cast as of the time the polls closed. Bloom received 69,280 votes, or 50.1%, to Butler’s 69,062 votes, or 49.9%. However, because of early voting and provisional ballots, another 30,000 votes remained to be counted as of press time, so this could still go either way.
Henry Waxman, the Westside’s congressman since 1974, also posted an unusually narrow margin of victory, taking 53.7% of the vote as compared to challenger Bill Bloomfield’s 46.3%.
Measure J, which would have extended the sales tax in an effort to accelerate public transportation projects, was narrowly defeated. It needed a two-thirds vote to pass and came in at 64.7%.
