Petrie-Norris pulls ahead of Harper in Assembly race

Laguna Beach Democrat Cottie Petrie-Norris has pulled ahead of incumbent Matthew Harper (R-Huntington Beach) in the tight race to represent the state’s 74th Assembly District.

The latest figures from the Orange County registrar of voters office Friday evening showed Petrie-Norris leading Harper, 50.6% to 49.4%, a margin of 1,642 votes.

That’s a reversal from earlier this week, when she trailed Harper by a narrow margin in the district, which includes Costa Mesa, Laguna Beach, Newport Beach and part of Huntington Beach.

Meanwhile, another Laguna Beach Democrat, Harley Rouda, continued to pad his lead over incumbent Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Costa Mesa) as more ballots were tallied in the closely watched race for the 48th Congressional District seat.

As of 5 p.m. Friday, Rouda led Rohrabacher by 7,328 votes, a 51.8% to 48.2% margin. The 48th District includes Huntington Beach, Costa Mesa, Fountain Valley, Newport Beach and Laguna Beach.

Also, the race for the District 3 seat on the Newport Beach City Council continued to be a nail-biter, with challenger Tim Stoaks holding a 330-vote lead over incumbent Marshall “Duffy� Duffield.

Countywide, 366,436 ballots were still left to be counted, according to the registrar of voters office. It’s unclear how many of those were in the three local races.

Daily Pilot staff writer Hillary Davis contributed to this report.

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