Assemblymember Al Muratsuchi (D-Torrance), who ran for re-election against Republican David Hadley in Tuesday’s election, issued the following statement on Wednesday:
“It has been an honor representing the South Bay in the State Assembly. The unofficial canvass of the vote shows my opponent currently in the lead by a small margin. With over 300,000 ballots still to count in this historically low-turnout election, where only 30 percent of voters cast ballots, I believe we all owe the voters the respect of waiting until every vote is counted.”
As of Friday morning, Muratsuchi had 39,478 votes (48.6 percent) to Hadley’s 41,807 (51.4 percent), a difference of 2,329 votes. On election night, the race appeared much closer, with Muratsuchi taking the lead more than once.
Confident that the percentages would remain the same even with the additional ballots counted, Hadley has already declared victory. In a Facebook post on Thursday, he told his supporters, “I’ve been in Sacramento since yesterday for legislative training, and the team has been cleaning up the office and monitoring the final ballot processing in Norwalk.
“If you still have yard signs, please hang on to them for the re-election, or toss them out if they are damaged. Thank you again for all of your hard work, and for voting!”
The Daily Breeze, which endorsed Hadley, counted Muratsuchi among “the Democratic incumbents who were unseated by GOP challengers” in an editorial on Wednesday.