With more than 335,000 ballots cast in California’s 25th congressional district, incumbent Mike Garcia (R) has widened his lead to 466 votes over Christy Smith (D) as of Thursday evening, according to the Santa Clara Signal and other outlets.
Garcia’s lead had dipped to slightly over 100 votes at one point, according to news reports. . About 99% of the ballots have been counted, according to the CNN website.
Garcia, who serves on the House Science, Space and Technology Committee, is a former Raytheon employee who won a special election in May to claim the open seat created by the resignation of Rep. Katie Hill (D), has the thinnest of leads over Smith, a member of the California state Assembly. Hill, considered a rising star in the Democratic Party, resigned in November 2019 after acknowledging an affair with a former campaign staffer.
Cleanup of the Santa Susana Field Laboratory site in Ventura County is a big issue in the district, which includes northern Los Angeles County and part of Ventura County. Boeing and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration control most of the 2,700-acre Santa Susana Field Laboratory grounds, which were used for decades to research rocket-engines. The DOE leased about 450 acres and for nuclear energy-related research. The DOE and the state of California recently reached an accord on demolishing the final eight buildings controlled by the department.
If the two U.S. Senate runoff races slated for January in Georgia, which borders the Savannah River Site in South Carolina, are excluded, the California contest is the last remaining undecided Congressional race with implications for a nearby DOE nuclear cleanup site.
Ballots postmarked by the Nov. 3 election date, will be accepted through today, according to the Los Angeles Times.
