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Mark Obenshain's Next Steps

Virginia Attorney General candidate and State Senator Mark Obenshain isn’t accepting defeat now that an UNOFFICIAL Board of Elections tally gives his Democratic opponent, Senator Mark Herring, a 164-vote lead. Obenshain says it's too early to talk about a recount, but while he waits for the final numbers, he’s putting together a transition team-as permitted under state law.

Obenshain says it's happened before-a race so close that after the unofficial votes were counted and favored one candidate, the recount wound up favoring the other candidate. While Herring has claimed victory, Obenshain says it's just posturing-since after all, Herring hasn't given up his Senate seat. But then Obenshain was asked if it's premature to name a transition team:

Obenshain says he is concerned about the ballot irregularities in Northern Virginia, in which roughly two thousand absentee ballots were found at the last minute, shifting the lead toward Herring. But Obenshain says he's not going to "cry foul" just yet. He wants to see how things play out.  The current margin of votes between the two men is less than 1/100th of 1 percent. He would have 10 days after the State Board of Elections meets on November 25th to ask for a recount.

Tommie McNeil is a State Capitol reporter who has been covering Virginia and Virginia politics for more than a decade. He originally hails from Maryland, and also doubles as the evening anchor for 1140 WRVA in Richmond.