THIS JUST IN: Alyson Huber, the Democratic candidate in Assembly District 10, has taken a come-from-behind lead in the tight race, possibly bringing Democrats to 51 seats in the Assembly next session.
Huber had been trailing GOP opponent Jack Sieglock by roughly 1,000 votes, but a "surge" of previously uncounted ballots put her ahead, said Andrew Acosta, a spokesman for Huber's campaign.
The official tally from the Secretary of State's Office as of late Tuesday evening showed Huber with a 531-vote lead.
"There's probably only a couple of hundred ballots outstanding in El Dorado County and a handful in Sac and San Joaquin, but it doesn't appear to be enough to overtake the surge from Sacramento County today," said Acosta.
Sieglock had been leading for the three weeks since the election. More votes remain to be tallied, but counties must certify their results by next Tuesday.
Meanwhile, the 2008 legislative year ended with a whimper Tuesday.
That, and a lot of cross aisle finger-pointing.
In the end, Democrats put forth a 50-50 package of cuts and taxes that would have eaten away at roughly $17 billion of California's budget deficit in the next two years.
But Republicans just didn't budge on new revenues.
Senate GOP Dave Cogdill told the Democrats that they have "got to find another way."
What exactly that other might be is starting to visibly frustrate many Democratic aides and lawmakers.
"What are your choices?" incoming Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg asked in his floor speech. "What do you propose?"
"Of course I'm disappointed," Assembly Speaker Karen Bass declared after the vote.
Assembly Republican leader Mike Villines said Tuesday's plan didn't have key GOP elements: a spending cap, economic stimulus or enough cuts.
"All we're saying is, if we're going to solve the problem, let's do the whole problem," Villines said.
Speaking of whole ... you might have noticed that the whole Legislature wasn't there last night, as some lawmakers seemingly decided that California approaching a fiscal abyss wasn't worth cutting short trips overseas.
If you know where exactly the missing lawmakers were, do tell.
After the whole thing was said and done, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger compared lawmakers to a bunch of kindergarteners.
Funny, the Legislature is usually compared to high school.
Maybe Schwarzenegger just liked Rex Babin's cartoon.
Did we forget to mention that 28 freshmen Assembly members will be sworn in next Monday?
A handful of those members were on hand Tuesday night watching from the back of the chambers. Reports that both their fingers and toes were crossed in hopes of achieving a budget accord before their arrival could not be confirmed by press time.
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