It’s hard to turn your back on something that you’ve been working for so long.  And so, I imagine that is the case for Mary Salas. She has now asked for a partial recount of the votes.

Assemblywoman Mary Salas, D-San Diego, has requested a recount of ballots in San Diego and Riverside counties in hopes of overcoming a 22-vote deficit between her and Democrat Juan Vargas in the 40th Senate District.

San Diego Registrar Deborah Seiler confirmed that Salas made the request just before 5 p.m. Monday. Officials in Riverside said they also received a request to tally their ballots again.

The sprawling 40th District includes all of Imperial County and parts of Riverside and San Diego counties. San Diego was the only county where Salas outpolled Vargas. (CapWkly)

Now, there is some gamesmanship here. Not only was the request made right before the deadline, but Salas did not request a recount in Imperial County. For some reason, the law allows recounts county by county.  Salas won San Diego County, and came close in Riverside, while losing Imperial. So, the move to only request a recount in these two counties makes sense.

Now, for Vargas, the clock has expired on making the request for Imperial County.  He’s going to have to hope that his decision not to seek a recount in Imperial County will not come back to bite him.  It’s a little bit bizarre, but them’s the rules.

At this point, I don’t think we really know who is going to win this one. Results should trickle in, with the finally tally hopefully before the end of next week.

Down in the 40th Senate district, every vote mattered.  And as of the latest tally, it looks like Business-Dem Juan Vargas will sneak through the primary with a 22 vote victory over Asm. Mary Salas. 22 Votes.

Ahead by 22 votes, former Assemblyman Juan Vargas  has declared victory over Assemblywoman Mary Salas  in the 40th Senate District Democratic primary.

Salas, who led in early returns, had declared victory in the days following the election. But with the final outstanding votes counted, Vargas is ahead 24,282 votes to 24,260 votes, according to county returns.

“It’s been a long road, but we’ve reached the finish line tonight,” he said in a statement.

The final boost came from a count of more than 12,500 Riverside County ballots that had inadvertently been left at a post office on Election Day. A Riverside judge ordered last week that the county include those ballots in its final results. The county has until Thursday to certify the results.(SacBee)

Salas can request a recount, but it is neither automatic nor state-funded.  Furthermore, Sen. Darrell Steinberg, who vigorously supported Salas, has indicated that he would not be funding such a recount. However, with such a narrow margin of victory, a change due to a recount is not out of the realm of possibility. With simple random error, it is hardly difficult to achieve a 22 vote mistake over the course of about 50,000 votes. If I hear anything of a recount fundraising effort, I’ll be sure to pass that along.

Vargas, a former Assembly Democrat, was heavily supported by insurance and other corporate types.  Vargas also voted NO on Mark Leno’s marriage equality bills while in the Assembly.  In an ideal world, Salas would have pulled the squeaker out, but now it looks like we’ll deal with Vargas for the next few years. It’s hardly the end of the world, but it’s always tough to lose one like that.

One of the more contested races in the June primary was the SD-40 race between Juan Vargas and Mary Salas.  This is one of those clear-cut decisions for progressives. Vargas is wishy washy on all of our issues, got the bulk of his support from corporate interests, and wasn’t there for the LGBT community when it came time for a vote on marriage equality.

On election day, it looked like Salas was going to take the race. Now, well, things are different…and confusing.

Updated results from San Diego County this afternoon gave Vargas a six-vote edge district wide. According to totals reported by all three counties in the district, Vargas leads with 24,079 votes to Salas’ 24,073. San Diego County has roughly 750 ballots to count countywide, though not all of those will be from this district or race. (CapAlert)

Oh, and there are 12,500 votes up in the air, so this is far from over.

We’ll keep you updated, as this is going to go on for a while…

Assemblymember Mary Salas (37th AD) is running for Senator Denise Ducheny’s seat in the 40th.  Salas already has the endorsement of Denise Ducheny and Manuel Perez (CA80AD), but she faces a GOP-funded primary opponent in Juan Vargas.  This is a safe Democratic seat if we pay attention to the primary.  More on Vargas over the flip.

Our club loved her, Mary is businesslike but warm, and very attractive, there is no way this lady can be 61.  

Salas emphasized her work on healthcare and veterans’ issues.  When asked about the Governor’s race:  she said she’s looking for a Governor who will have the guts enough to make the hard decisions for California.  Tired of political self-interest in that office.  She has seven bills on Arnold’s desk being held hostage to his blanket veto threat.  

Imperfect transcript over the flip.

Mary Salas 37th AD

On Manuel:  Brilliant young man, a real fighter, focused on jobs, jobs, jobs.  I serve on his Committee on Jobs and Economic Development and have seen him in action.  Thank you for all you did to get him to Sacramento.  He’s done terrific things for this community and all of CA.

You are being represented so well now, the difference is just amazing.

8 years in city council.  Very first Latina elected to the water board.  

Her uncles and father served in WWII and Korean Wars.  She serves on Cmte for Veterans Affairs, Salas is working on rental housing for veterans.

12% of our prison population is veterans.  25% of our homeless population is veterans.

Cycle of drug dependence due to PTSD.  Supports drug courts for veterans, wants diversion programs for vets.

Supports universal healthcare, serves on health cmte

Water Parks and Wildlife Cmte – still committed to getting water deal done in special session.  Ran out of time.  Affects not just farmers but all of CA, biotech companies are huge consumers of water, their needs critical, too.

Grateful for Manuel and Denise’s endorsement for Senate seat – but please don’t get complacent about this seat.

Republicans are identifying Republican- friendly Dems to challenge us.  

Juan Vargas is funded by JobsPac (CA Chamber, HMOs, Insurance Industry)  and Republican donors.  This race will be decided in June.   Mr. vargas has a record – against gay marriage stood up on the floor and fought to defeat Leno’s bill.  Insurance Cmte – Vargas eroded workers comp protection.  Made it harder for fire victims to be compensated for their losses.  

Vargas was Chair of Insurance Cmte – promised never to work for insurance company.  After Filner cleaned his clock, Vargas went to work as an insurance company lobbyist.

Here’s what I did:

Got a bill signed, hospitals can’t bill patients for emergency care.  Previously, if hospital wasn’t contracted with your HMO, you got billed the balance.  Salas got that stopped. Lobbyists came out of the woodwork and pressured our Democrats.

Was told not to bother, others have tried with this bill and failed.  She did it anyway.

Gotten a lot of legislation through relating to veterans and healthcare.  I’m a fighter just like Manuel is.

Hope you hear my message that this is a primary fight.  I’m 61 with a 42 year old daughter and three grandkids.  First grandson going to CalPoly right now.