It's almost over in the AD72 special election. Actually, depending on who harvested the lion's share of vote-by-mail voters and their ultimate percentage of votes cast, the outcome may already be decided.

So let's take a look at where we are.

Mailbox War Winding Down
The mail war is over. The Ackerman campaign sent out this positive piece that landed last Thursday (I had posted it that evening, but it has since been lost due to subsequent technical problems): it trumpets her anti-tax philosophy and pile of endorsements, and trumpets the "conservative you can trust" theme: 

 It claims she is the "only candidate endorsed by Orange County leaders." I think it's news to all the elected officials who have endorsed Sup. Chris Norby that they don't qualify as "Orange County leaders."

Here's a piece the Norby campaign mailed out about 10 days ago to blunt attacks from the "Alliance for California's Future" independent expenditure committee: 

On Thursday of last week, the Norby campaign wound up the campaign with this mailer touting his tax-fighter credentials and conspicuously featuring his family: 

Money Still Coming In for Ackerman
It's been a while since we've toted up the fundraising in this race, so let's take a look at how the Ackerman and Norby campaigns have fared since last Monday.

Linda Ackerman outpaced Norby, as she has throughout the race, pulling in at least $21,800 (unless I missed some donations) -- including $1,000 from "Fox Group, a division of News America, Inc.) -- I supppose that makes Linda Ackerman the Fox News Candidate, which should set left-wing teeth to grinding.

Norby raised less, totaling $3,000.

Although Ackerman crushed Norby in terms of fundraising this last week, that money comes late in the campaign, where it has less effect on the outcome.

The only activity from the Alliance for California's Future IE commitee, which pounded Norby in the early stages of the campaign, was spending a little money on data and for research.

OC Registrar of Voters Neal Kelley promised to have the first round of votes posted by 8:05 p.m. -- which should tell us all we need to know about who is going to be the next Assemblymember from the 72nd Assembly District.

Most Absentee Votes Already In
Of the 81,390 vote-by-mail ballots issued, 29,011 have come back so far. Going on the conventional assumption that about 32,000 to 34,000 will be returned, the most dominant segment of the balloting is effectively over.