With race for attorney general undecided, Steve Cooley still set to schmooze donors at Lakers-Kings game

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Los Angeles Dist. Atty. Steve Cooley remains locked in a seesaw battle with his Democratic rival, San Francisco Dist. Atty. Kamala Harris, in the race to become California’s next attorney general. But that won’t stop the Republican from catching Wednesday evening’s Lakers-Kings game in Sacramento with some of his big contributors.

Cooley had scheduled a news conference Wednesday morning to declare victory in the race, but as the contest tightened overnight, his campaign canceled the event.

Harris is clinging to a 22,299-vote lead with 99.2% of precincts reporting.

But Cooley isn’t backing out of his reserved luxury suite at Arco Arena, campaign spokesman Kevin Spillane said in an e-mail. Cooley will begin feting donors an hour before Wednesday’s tip-off.

A fundraising letter to would-be contributors before the election said, ‘We have 20 tickets for this game, so we must reserve the seats for new commitments only.’ Ticket prices started at $2,500.

The letter was controversial because Cooley’s campaign predicted -- accurately -- GOP gubernatorial nominee Meg Whitman’s defeat. The letter told potential donors: ‘Steve is the only Republican ahead in the polls and the only candidate strong enough to stand up to Jerry Brown and the Democratic establishment during the next four years.’

Check out the invite sent to donors here.

-- Shane Goldmacher in Los Angeles