Johnny Tacherra leads but Jim Costa predicts victory in congressional race

FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) -- The robotic counting machines in the Fresno County Clerk's Office will tabulate who's going to win the race in California's 16th Congressional District.

Right now, Republican Johnny Tacherra holds a roughly 700 vote lead over incumbent Democrat Jim Costa. Tacherra is comfortable he will hold onto his lead and win.

"I do feel confident, my team feels confident, Washington, D.C., the NRCC they feel very confident, they are down here now making sure everything is going smoothly," he said.

While he waged his campaign without party support, the NRCC, or National Republican Congressional Committee, is now embracing this surprise candidate.

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But, as the returns came in on election night, incumbent Democrat Jim Costa was expecting to pull this one out.

"We think at the end of the day, when all the votes are counted, we will win this race," he said.

Costa's optimistic because he won 65 percent of the vote in Fresno County, where most of the voters live, and where there are more than 46,000 ballots yet to be counted.

There are uncounted votes in much smaller Madera and Merced counties where Tacherra won big. He says voters liked his down-home approach.

"I just constantly got that everywhere I went, it's like, 'Hey, ain't you the farmer?' I say yes, and they say, 'Hey, you got my vote.' My message resonated with the district. I listened to everybody," said Tacherra.

Costa's problem, according to ABC30 legal and political analyst Tony Capozzi, is the same problem that plagued Democrats nationwide.

"The malaise in Washington has come all the way back to Fresno to our local congressman who has done a good job, but people are just upset with what's happening in Washington and are voting against the incumbents," said Capozzi.

Combine that with the usual lack of turnout by Democratic voters during midterm elections and Capozzi adds: "As a result, the Republicans got out to vote, they always vote, and the Democrats shoot themselves in the foot and possibly lose a congressman like Jim Costa."

Fresno County Clerk Brandi Orth expects most of the uncounted ballots to be tabulated by Friday afternoon. But the final count is expected to take almost a month.