Close Loser in Council Race Seeks Recount : Long Beach: Only 7 votes separate front-runner Tonia Reyes Uranga and Mike Donelon in 7th District.

The battle to claim a City Council seat in Long Beach’s 7th District continued this week as candidate Mike Donelon, who trailed front-runner Tonia Reyes Uranga by just seven votes, announced he is seeking a recount.

Uranga held a 29-vote lead on election night June 7, but after the City Clerk’s office counted some provisional ballots and late absentee votes Friday, Uranga led Donelon, 2,926 to 2,919.

Donelon announced plans to seek a recount after the City Council certified the results Tuesday. “I want to go the extra mile just to make sure,” he said.

Donelon said Tuesday he probably will ask that ballots be counted by hand rather than by machine. A recount would take three to five days, costing $3,000 per day, Deputy City Clerk Deborah Wright said. Donelon will not be charged if the recount puts him ahead of Uranga, she said.

If Uranga’s lead holds, she and 1st District winner Jenny Oropeza will become the first Latinos to join the council. Uranga and Donelon were vying for the seat vacated by Ray Grabinski, who lost his bid for mayor last week. Donelon had been the top vote-getter in the April primary race for the seat.

In the aftermath of a bitterly fought 9th District election, defeated Councilman Warren Harwood filed a complaint alleging that his opponent, Jerry Shultz, failed to report thousands of dollars in campaign contributions.

Harwood, who lost to Shultz by nearly 500 votes, filed the complaint with the state Fair Political Practices Commission.

Shultz acknowledged that campaign workers had failed to record $3,000 in contributions from the Greater Long Beach Board of Realtors and a $3,000 loan that he made to himself. He said, however, that the omission was an oversight.