photo credit: Tony Webster/wikimedia

It's been two weeks since California's June 2nd primary election, and races for Congress have been settled.

The slow vote count though has made for some dramatic final results given the "red mirage" or "blue shift".

The phenomenon is the tendency for early vote counts to favor Republican candidates in elections, before later counted ballots narrow or even erase deficits for Democratic candidates.

It happened in District 4, for years represented by Napa Democrat Mike Thompson.

There was no threat of a Republican lockout in the district which includes parts of southern Sonoma County, but challenger Eric Jones overtook Sacramento-area Republican Ray Riehle, with the Associated Press calling the race with Thompson and Jones as the top two voter-getters after a strong "blue shift" in later vote counts.

It's set up a Democrat vs. Democrat race, as Jones looks to land an upset in November.

"If you believe politics are broken, whether it's Sacramento or Washington D.C., I would just ask that you be open-minded and consider something different," Jones said after his second place finish was confirmed. "Because electing the same people to do the same job in the same way will not produce a different outcome."

Sonoma County's other Congressional races haven't served up the same dramatic finishes, but the post-election night vote counting has made a clearer picture what's expected in November's general election.

In District 2, incumbent Democrat Jared Huffman will go against Robin Littau, a Republican and school member in Redding.

The race for the new District 1 seat looks set to be a campaign of contrasts, as Republican James Gallagher, who was recently sworn in to fill the remainder of the late Representative Doug LaMalfa's term, will vie with Democratic State Senator Mike McGuire.

Gallagher handily won the special election on the pre-Prop 50 district 1 map, but McGuire has narrowed the gap in the primary for the new seat, which includes the majority of Sonoma County residents, and after two weeks of vote counting, Gallagher leads by less than 100 votes.

McGuire may have an easier path to victory come November. As the Democratic nominee, he's likely to win many of the 30,000 primary votes that went to Chico Democrat Audrey Denney in the June primary.