Lungren, Adding to Lead, Declares Victory; Smith Won’t Concede

Nine days after the polls closed, Republican Dan Lungren on Thursday declared victory in the race for state attorney general, but his Democratic foe, Arlo Smith, refused to concede.

“This is the time for rejoicing,” said former five-term Congressman Lungren, flanked by his family at a Sacramento rally. “ . . . It was a difficult and tough campaign.”

But Smith, who was trailing Lungren late Thursday by 9,959 votes out of more than 7 million cast, said “the longest Election Day of my life . . . is still going on.”

“I think it would be irresponsible to either concede the election or declare victory until the last (absentee) vote is counted and until the lawsuits over the absentee ballots are settled and that cloud is removed,” said the 11-year San Francisco district attorney during a press conference at his campaign headquarters.

Smith, who had been ahead by almost 29,000 before the absentee ballot count began, has filed two lawsuits in Orange County that, if successful, could invalidate most of the 461,000 absentee votes that have already been tabulated across the state.

The Smith campaign has charged that the Republican Party may have improperly submitted applications for absentee ballots on behalf of voters. Because no safeguards have been used to check the validity of the applications, the Smith camp contends that all potentially tainted absentee ballots should be declared void.

Lungren, after steadily chipping away at Smith’s lead, finally forged ahead of Smith on Wednesday by 2,157 votes. The conservative politician Long Beach native boosted his lead Thursday in part by picking up 4,374 votes on Smith in Los Angeles County.

The secretary of state’s office estimates that more than 100,000 absentees remain uncounted statewide, but the bulk are in Republican-dominated Orange County. Election staffers there temporarily halted their tabulation last weekend after Smith filed a suit demanding that signatures on absentee ballot applications be compared to those on voters’ affidavits of registration. A hearing on the lawsuit had been scheduled for today, and hearing on the move to have most absentee ballots declared invalid is set for Nov. 30.

Smith campaign staffers said Thursday that the San Francisco prosecutor is also considering seeking a recount, which would cost him up to $2 million unless he proved victorious. According to the secretary of state’s office, a recount has never before been undertaken in a statewide race in California.

Lungren, who regularly exchanged diatribes with Smith during the campaign, was more conciliatory Thursday.

“I think (Smith) will abide by the will of the people when the inevitable comes,” he said.

Times staff writers Carl Ingram in Sacramento and Bob Schwartz in Santa Ana contributed to this article.