Garcetti Increases His Lead Over Lynch to 3,446 Votes

Reversing a pattern that had seen his slim edge over challenger John Lynch eroding, Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Gil Garcetti increased his lead by 281 votes in ballots counted Friday, padding his margin to 3,446, election officials said.

With all but 1,000 absentee ballots and about 34,000 provisional ballots now counted, Garcetti appears to be on the verge of clinching a second term by a margin of about 1%, political analysts said. About 2.2 million ballots were cast.

Including Friday’s tally of 27,251 more ballots, the totals break down this way: Garcetti, 1,109,770 votes, or 50.08%, and Lynch, 1,106,324, or 49.92%.

The next update is due Tuesday. If necessary, yet another update will be issued Thursday. Under law, all returns must be counted by Nov. 26.

In the race for the 43rd Assembly District seat in the Glendale-Burbank area, which the GOP has held for 62 years, Democrat Scott Wildman still leads Republican John Geranios. But Wildman’s 168-vote lead was cut Friday to 81 votes--48,700 to 48,619, or 48.30% to 48.22%. The two are vying to succeed U.S. Rep.-Elect James Rogan (R-Glendale).