Assembly race undecided in low-turnout primary

Woolsey turns back Nation's challenge; Kerns wins third supervisorial term

June 14, 2006

By COREY YOUNG
ARGUS-COURIER STAFF

It's a waiting game for two candidates in the 6th Assembly District, as thousands of absentee ballots remain to be counted before a victor is declared.

Jared Huffman, a director of the Marin Municipal Water District and an environmental attorney, leads Petaluma City Councilmember Pamela Torliatt by 1,922 votes in the latest ballot count for the district's Democratic primary race.

Huffman, who captured 42 percent of the Marin County vote in the six-way race, said he's feeling confident his overall lead will hold, "but it would be inappropriate and disrespectful for me to declare victory when there are still votes to be counted."

Marin County has about 2,000 more absentee ballots to count this week out of 14,000 post-election absentee votes, Registrar Elaine Ginnold said.

"We're aiming to have everything done by next week," she said.

The two-county 6th Assembly District includes all of Marin and the southern part of Sonoma County, where Torliatt received 52 percent of the vote.

Sonoma County has more than 24,300 absentee ballots to be counted, Assistant Registrar of Voters Janice Atkinson said. There is no way to tell exactly how many of those are from 6th District voters, but 38 percent of county voters reside in the 6th District and over half of those residents are Democrats or non-partisans who could cast ballots in the six-way primary.

The final results for every race should be known in about three weeks, she said.

In the district-wide results so far, Marin County Supervisor Cynthia Murray stands in third, Dixie School Board president Damon Connolly is in fourth, Marin Democratic Party Chair John Alden is fifth and retired sociologist Alex Easton-Brown is in sixth place.

Torliatt did not return a call for comment. Huffman said he's confident he'll win in the final outcome because voters turned their attention to his campaign in the final days before the June 6 vote.

Pointing to his current Marin standing of 42 percent of votes, he said, "What you see there is how strongly we did on election day. There was a huge momentum building for us in the final days."

Political analysts said a barrage of slick mailers for or against Torliatt and Murray, paid for by outside groups, may have sent voters looking for a third alternative.

But Huffman, endorsed by the Sierra Club and the League of Conservation Voters, said his environmental message and focus on the threat of global warming captured North Bay Democrats' attention.

"Our message was quite unique and the public listened," said Huffman, who works for the Natural Resources Defense Council and calls himself "a professional environmentalist."

Though the outcome of the race is not final, Huffman has already received congratulatory calls from outgoing Assembly-man Joe Nation and Speaker of the Assembly Fabian Nunez.

"Speaker Nunez has already summoned me up to Sacramento for a two-day orientation," Huffman said. Meanwhile, he'll take a few days off, "but then weÕll have a fall campaign to run."

The winner of the Huffman-Torliatt waiting game will face Republican Michael Hartnett, Libertarian Richard Olmstead and Green Cat Woods in November, though the heavily Democratic 6th District is expected to affirm the Democratic primary winner in the fall vote.

In the Democratic Congressional primary, Rep. Lynn Woolsey, D-Petaluma, bested Nation, D-San Rafael, by a 2-to-1 margin, and the uncounted absentee votes from each county won't make a difference.

Woolsey is expected to win an eighth term in Congress in November, when she'll face Libertarian Richard Friesen and Republican Todd Hooper (who beat opponent Mike Halliwell in a rare Republican primary for the seat).

Nation, who mounted what was considered the most serious primary challenge faced by Woolsey so far, said he thought the results would be closer. He said the low turnout -- 38 percent of voters in Marin, 42 percent in Sonoma -- probably played a role, as did last-minute mailers by Woolsey that Nation said distorted his stance on Iraq.

Nation, who is termed out of the Assembly after six years, said lots of people have been wondering what he'll do next. He hasn't ruled out another run for Congress but said he hasn't spent a great deal of time thinking about his next steps -- except to say he wants to remain "active and engaged" in the North Bay.

In other local races, south county Supervisor Mike Kerns easily defeated challenger Mervis Reissig. Janice Atkinson beat Bill Rousseau in the race to succeed longtime Clerk-Recorder-Assessor Eeve Lewis, and District Attorney Stephan Passalacqua will likely win a second term over challenger Jill Ravitch when the vote count is complete. He currently leads Ravitch by 2,482 votes.

(Contact Corey Young at cyoung@arguscourier.com)