California: Alyson Huber

STATE CAPITOL - For at least a few hours, Republicans and Democrats alike exchanged well wishes and paused to acknowledge the significance of elected office, with swearing-in ceremonies in both the state Senate and Assembly chambers Monday.

Before the formal swearing in of 24 new Assembly members and 11 new state Senators, family members and friends crowded the chamber floors, while the new and returning politicians made acquaintances with fellows on both sides of the aisle.

A spokesman for the campaign for Democratic Assembly candidate Alyson Huber said the mood was cautiously optimistic after Huber took the vote-count lead in AD-10 late Tuesday from Republican Jack Sieglock.

"It's been a long process," said spokesman Andrew Acosta. "But I think it's better to be up at this point."

Huber, an attorney from El Dorado Hills, had a 506-vote lead over Lodi businessman and former elected official Sieglock as of 11:33 a.m. Wednesday.

Tom McClintock's lead in the 4th Congressional District race was at 1,566 votes Monday evening, with a handful of provisional and vote-by-mail ballots to be counted.

The total as of 4:46 p.m. gave him 50.3 percent of the vote to 49.7 percent for Democrat Charlie Brown, and vote count totals were final in Nevada and Placer counties.

Jack Sieglock's lead in the 10th Assembly District race rose to 1,007 votes Thursday, though the percentages did not change between him and Democrat Alyson Huber.

Sieglock, a Republican from Lodi, had 46.9 percent of the vote and 84,314 votes to 46.3 percent of the vote and 83,307 votes for Huber, an attorney from El Dorado Hills.

The race, which had plenty of donations from both state parties as well as outside independent expenditures, was the only outstanding state Assembly race where the candidates were split by less than two percentage points.