Senate recount done; Harman still the winner

The recount of primary votes in the 35th District state Senate race is officially over, and Huntington Beach Assemblyman Tom Harman remains the GOP winner.

Harman beat Republican Dana Point City Councilwoman Diane Harkey by 236 votes in the April 11 election for the Senate seat, which was left vacant when incumbent Sen. John Campbell won a U.S. House seat in December.

Because the election was so close, Harkey asked for a recount: Less than half a percentage point separated Harkey, who had 37,604 votes, from Harman, with 37,840 votes.

The recount was finished Friday, with Harkey picking up 11 votes, Orange County Registrar of Voters Neal Kelley said. The original tally, however, will stand because Harkey did not request that the changes from the recount be certified, he said.

Now Harman will face Democratic candidate Larry Caballero, a teacher from La Palma, on the June 6 ballot. The seat represents Costa Mesa, Newport Beach and all or part of 13 other Orange County cities.

Although the recount cost Harkey about $14,000 ? seven days at $2,000 a day ? she said Friday it was worth it. For one thing, she found out that foreign language ballots may have been where she lost the election.

Harkey came in behind Harman with voters whose ballots were printed in another language ? mainly Vietnamese.

“Everywhere else, Harman and I were neck and neck,” she said.

She thinks it was because her designation as a City Council member didn’t translate well, or because Harman bought a ballot statement and she didn’t.

“That may have been the only piece of mail that the Vietnamese [voters] who could not read English read,” she said.

All things considered, Harkey said, it was an enormous feat for a little-known candidate to come within about 200 votes of a sitting legislator in just a few months. She hasn’t yet decided what office she might seek in the future.

As to whether she’ll challenge Harman for the Senate seat in 2008, Harkey said, “I don’t rule anything out two years from now, but I’m not anticipating the need to do so.”

At the moment, she’s just hoping to plan a trip to Hawaii with friends to have a chance to unwind.

“Now we’ve put closure to this,” Harkey said, adding with a laugh, “This has been the longest election day in history, or one of them.”