Campbell Clinging to Lead Over Beam

Businessman Bill Campbell kept a slim, 318-vote lead over developer and chief rival Jim Beam in the 71st Assembly District GOP primary election with most of the 43,000 absentee ballots counted, the registrar of voters reported Tuesday.

Campbell had 22,138 votes (39.9%) to Beam’s 21,820 (39.4%), a lead of less than half a percentage point, Registrar Rosalyn Lever said.

Lever has yet to count 4,000 to 6,000 ballots countywide that are being checked for authenticity before the March 26 election can be certified, she said.

Unless Beam has some indication of something amiss, he said, he will not seek a recount.

In Dana Point, the absentee count lengthened Mayor Karen Lloreda’s margin against a recall from only 168 votes on election night to 197 votes. With all precincts and most absentee votes now tallied, the vote was 4,825 (51%) to 4,628 (49%) against a recall.