[Kate Moser and Cheryl Miller]
It's a bit after midnight, and line prosecutor Jeff Rosen is holding a razor-thin lead on his boss, incumbent Dolores Carr, in the race for Santa Clara DA.
Smelling victory, at 10:50 Rosen told supporters decked out in baby blue "Rosen for DA" ballcaps that he had an announcement: "With the way the night is trending, we can eat the cake now."
At 12:15, Rosen was ahead of Carr by 1900 votes, with about two-thirds of precincits reporting. That's about 160,000 votes tallied. But the San Jose Mercury News reported just before 11 p.m. that 16,000 absentee ballots wouldn't be counted until Wednesday.
Carr didn't return a call late Tuesday.
It's been a prickly campaign, with both candidates swiping at each other. Carr objected to Rosen's claim that she'd ever taken money from bail bonds companies, and just last week, Rosen accused Carr of violating campaign laws by involving herself in an independent expenditure by the Republican party for a mailer supporting her. Rosen has hit Carr hard over what he has called ethical failures ofthe office under her watch. He even took a pot shot at Carr's choice of vehicles. Carr has dryly sought to highlight Rosen's lack of managerial experience in his aspirations for the top job.
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