Kevin Jeffries Lead Over Bob Buster Narrows In Supervisor Race

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ORIGINAL POST NOV. 9: Outgoing Assemblyman Kevin Jeffries had 137 votes shaved from his lead over Riverside County Supervisor Bob Buster today in the race to represent the county's First District, but still held a 670-vote advantage.

The Registrar of Votes' website noted that 49,500 vote-by-mail ballots, 60,000 provisional ballots and 13,500 damaged ballots had yet to be processed countywide.

Another updated vote tabulation was scheduled to be released at 6 p.m. Saturday.

This was the first time Buster had been forced into a runoff election since his inaugural campaign in 1992.

Campaign filings showed both Buster and Jeffries spent six-figure amounts on their races, though Buster raised 60 percent more in political contributions.

Buster's camp underscored a record of trying to improve the local economy and save the county money through public employee pension reform and the acquisition of federal grants for transportation projects that employee local workers.

Jeffries criticized Buster's six-figure pension and vowed that if elected, he would work to convert all the supervisors' retirement plans to self- funded 401(k)s. The property management firm owner also blasted the incumbent for supporting some aspects of  Gov. Jerry Brown's 2011 "realignment" initiative that resulted in many state responsibilities being shifted onto counties -- without assurances for long-term funding.