Sonoma County and its 28,000 unreported ballots could decide who gets to run for state controller in November.

More than two weeks after the June 3 primary election, Assemblyman John Pérez of Los Angeles leads fellow Democrat Betty Yee, a Board of Equalization member from San Francisco, by just 932 votes for the second spot in the fall election. Ashley Swearengin, Fresno's Republican mayor, has the top position in the race, leading her two challengers by more than 120,000 votes.

The top-two contest for controller is shaping up to be one of the closest statewide races in California history, tighter even than the November 2002 race for the same office, when Democrat Steve Westly beat Republican Tom McClintock by 16,811 votes.

"I've got two models on my computer right now," said Douglas Herman, a strategist for Pérez's campaign. "One shows a close win for John and the other shows a close win for Betty. I don't know which one to believe."