From MercuryNews.com:

Republican Sam Blakeslee’s hope of winning this week’s state Senate race and averting a runoff died on Friday.

With the ballots counted, the San Luis Obispo assemblyman remained half a percentage point – about 750 votes – short of the majority needed to win the seat in the sprawling, five-county Central Coast district.

The unofficial results, Blakeslee at 49.49 percent of the vote and Democrat John Laird at 41.73 percent, push the race to an Aug. 17 runoff, promising seven more weeks of the intense and often caustic campaigning that’s characterized the contest.

At stake is a seat, vacated by Republican Abel Maldonado, with ramifications far beyond Central California. The race could put Democrats one vote away from having a two-thirds majority in the Senate, the threshold needed to pass budgets and new taxes without Republican approval.

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