House Speaker Ben Luján of Nambé late Tuesday had an uncomfortably slim lead in his bid to hold on the legislative seat he's held since the mid '70s.

Challenger Carl Trujillo, according to unofficial results, was trailing by only 72 votes.

The final vote won't be known for several days, until after the provisional ballots in the race are counted. County Clerk Valerie Espinoza said late Tuesday that she wasn't sure how many provisional votes were cast in District 46. "But typically it's just a handful," she said.

Trujillo, a senior technologist at Los Alamos National Laboratory and a political novice, ran surprisingly strong in the in House district, which includes most of the northern part of Santa Fe. He was Luján's first election opponent in a decade.

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Get results from the election by NM Secretary of State from the June 1, 2010 vote.

See the election day photo gallery http://tinyurl.com/2dgkyw4

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Trujillo said Tuesday that if he's still behind after the provisionals are counted he might ask for a recount.

Luján blamed the close race on several factors. He said one factor was a recent news story that linked him to Santa Fe County using public resources to pave a church parking lot in Nambé.

"I had nothing to do with that," the speaker said Thursday. He says he merely asked a county official to "look into maybe putting some (millings) in to that Nambé church."

Luján also said the economy and high-unemployment also hurt him, as those factors have hurt incumbents across the nation.

He said the nail-biter of a race won't have any effect on his leadership in the House, where he has been speaker since 2001.

Although the Luján-Trujillo race started out low-key, by the final days, the race began growing more heated.

Trujillo ran radio ads blasting Luján for his contributions from lobbyists and corporations. Operatives for Luján, meanwhile, were raking Trujillo over the coals for hiring a campaign manager who had previously worked for Republican congressional candidate Adam Kokesh. The whisper campaigns from both sides became nasty with Trujillo's camp insinuating that Luján held power by intimidating constituents and Luján supporters suggesting that Trujillo was a stooge of the GOP.

Meanwhile, in the only other contested primary legislative in the Santa Fe area, teacher Stephanie Richard defeated LANL scientist Pete Sheehey in House District 43. Richard will face 10-term incumbent Rep. Jeannette Wallace, R-Los Alamos, in November.

Richard was the clear favorite of many members of the progressive wing of the state Legislature, including Rep. Brian Egolf, D-Santa Fe, who donated to her campaign. Lt. Gov. Diane Denish also has contributed to her. (Richard's husband Eric Vasquez is a longtime Denish staffer.)

Contact Steve Terrell at 986-3037 or sterrell@sfnewmexican.com. Read his political blog at roundhouseroundup.com.