Republican Mark Brnovich led the race for attorney general by more than 70,000 votes about 11 p.m. tonight, but Democrat Felecia Rotellini didn't throw in the towel.
Rotellini acknowledged that she was not prepared to concede, wanting to wait for more votes to trickle in. At the time of this post, 1,166 of 1,566 precincts have reported results statewide.
Brnovich, a former prosecutor and director of the Arizona Department of Gaming, took out scandal-plagued Attorney General Tom Horne in the Republican primary.
Despite Brnovich's essentially being a political newcomer, and the fact that Rotellini nearly defeated Horne in 2010, it may seem surprising that Brnovich jumped out to such a lead.
Now, it seems highly improbably that Rotellini can overcome this deficit, in which Brnovich leads by about 7 percentage points.
Saying "things look good" but admitting he didn't know at the time if race had been called for him, Brnovich thanks supporters and gave what sounded like a victory speech to Republicans at the GOP election-results party at the Hyatt in Phoenix.
"We have an obligation to let our light shine in the world, and give something back to this country that's given so much to us," he said. "And I will tell you I am committed, when I'm your attorney general, that we work hard every day to protect those who can't protect themselves... I will work hard every day to make you proud, so when you see what's happening at the attorney general's office, you can say we're doing the right thing."
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