The only contested race that is still truly up in the air, following Tuesday’s election and the slow, slow counting that follows, is the race for California’s Second Assembly District, filling the seat left open by Jim Wood’s retirement.

Del Norte Republican Michael Greer has a commanding lead over his six competitors (all Democrats) but the real race is for second place — to choose which of the Democrats will face Greer on the November ballot and almost certainly defeat him.

According to the California Secretary of State’s office, Santa Rosa City Councilmember Chris Rogers has the tiniest edge over Arcata newcomer Rusty Hicks in the most current tally of votes. Hicks, the chair of the California Democratic Party, received several high-profile endorsements, most notably that of Gov. Gavin Newsom, but for now Rogers’ Sonoma County bonafides are carrying him, with 19.6 percent of the vote to Hicks’ 18.9 percent.

Fully 84.5 percent of Rogers’ tallied vote comes from northern Sonoma County, the district’s major population center. In three of the four other counties in the district — Humboldt, Del Norte, Trinity — he places fourth among the six Democratic candidates. In Mendocino, he places third.

Meanwhile, the Humboldt County Office of Elections has just issued the first in its series of weekly updates on how the count is going. In short: The post-election tally hasn’t really kicked into full gear yet, it seems — only 238 more ballots counted between the final Election Night report and today, with around 13,000 left to go. No significant change to local results, of course. Find that report here.