Bowen Concedes in California Special Election

California Secretary of State Debra Bowen, who trailed by a meager 206 votes on Tuesday night, conceded her congressional race earlier today, assuring Republican Craig Huey a second-place finish and a chance to compete in the July 12 runoff against Janice Hahn, a Los Angeles city councilwoman.

Hahn, a Democrat, led the crowded field of sixteen candidates hoping to capture California’s 36th district seat in the U.S. House with 24.6 percent of the vote — far from the fifty percent necessary to avoid a runoff.

Huey, a wealthy advertising executive who spent more than $515,000 of his own money in what was regarded as an uphill battle for one of the two spots in the runoff, will again be an enormous underdog in the July runoff.

Bowen, who had delayed her concession until some 10,000 absentee and provisional ballots were counted, threw in the towel on Thursday afternoon when Huey’s lead swelled to more than 750 votes.

“Since Tuesday’s election, my staff, legal advisers and election experts participated in the ballot review process to ensure a full and fair vote count was conducted. It is clear now that I will not be in the runoff and I congratulate Janice Hahn and Craig Huey,” Bowen, 55, said in a statement.

Most observers had predicted that two Democrats — Bowen and Hahn — would compete in the runoff.

Long represented by Democrat Jane Harman, who resigned from Congress earlier this year to head the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, a Washington D.C. think tank, California’s 36th congressional district leans heavily Democratic.