Kamala Harris holds thin lead for California attorney general

WASHINGTON - Hours after Indian-American Nikki Haley created history by winning the governors job in South Carolina, another woman of Indian origin, Kamala Harris holds a razor-thin lead in the election for attorney general of California.

With nearly 7 million ballots counted, Democrat Harris, daughter of an Indian mother and African-American father, was holding a lead of fewer than 38,000 votes over Republican Steve Cooley in the race for state attorney general.

But thousands of late absentee and provisional ballots remain uncounted Wednesday. Cooley, the Los Angeles County district attorney, jumped out to an early lead as the votes were being counted across the state Tuesday night.

Cooley declared victory and scheduled a victory press conference for Wednesday morning. But as the race tightened, Cooley’s campaign announced he was cancelling the press conference until the race had a more definitive result.

Harris, who trailed in most public opinion polls leading up to election day, is trying to complete a Democratic sweep of statewide offices. All other statewide offices went to Democrats, including the three currently held by Republicans — governor, lieutenant governor and insurance commissioner.

If her victory holds, Harris would become the first African-American and first woman ever to hold the job of California attorney general.

(Arun Kumar can be contacted at arun.kumar@ians.in)