State Senate 26: Sandra Fluke losing to Ben Allen

Sandra Fluke, the women’s rights activist who became a darling of the left after her national spat with conservative talk radio host Rush Limbaugh, is expected to lose her campaign for State Senate.

Shortly after midnight with 35.8 percent of precincts reporting, Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District Board Member Ben Allen held a nearly 2-1 lead over the Georgetown Law School graduate in the 26th Senate District. The Torrance-based seat was previously held by moderate Democrat Ted Lieu, who was winning his campaign to replace retiring Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Beverly Hills.

In February 2012, Fluke testified before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee in support of a contraception mandate. Following that testimony, Limbaugh mocked the liberal activist on his nationally-syndicated radio program, calling her “a slut.”

State Senate District 26

 

The 26th Senate district is exclusively in Los Angeles County and spans coastal communities from Santa Monica to the South Bay Peninsula. Democrats hold a commanding edge in voter registration, with independents outnumbering Republicans, according to voter registration information from Political Data, California’s largest provider of voter information. In the 2010 gubernatorial election, Brown carried the region by 22 percentage points.

In the June 3rd primary, Fluke and Allen finished atop a crowded field of seven Democrats and one non-partisan candidate. Without any Republicans in the race, law professor Seth Stodder, the lone non-partisan candidate, seemed almost guaranteed to be the top vote-getter in the first round in June.

However, Fluke wooed liberals in the coastal Los Angeles district with her national name recognition and more than $1 million in campaign spending.