An unusually close Primary election was the first big indicator of a tough reelection for Assemblywoman Betsy Butler. Even then, it seemed unlikely that she would be defeated by a fellow Democrat; these things just don’t happen very often.
But, as the latest votes were counted on Monday, Butler continued to slip farther behind challenger Richard Bloom. The vote count as of Monday morning put Bloom ahead with a 430-vote lead, which grew to 888 this evening.
Nothing is impossible (it took Juan Vargas 18 days to gain the narrow lead in 2010’s tough primary in SD-40 that eventually led him to victory) but we are now 20 days past the election and Butler’s chances of turning this race around appear to have finally ended.