Fullerton Democrat Josh Newman has taken the lead in the still-undecided race for the 29th state Senate District, positioning California Democrats to gain a two-thirds legislative supermajority in the statehouse.

With votes still being counted following the Nov. 8 election, Newman on Monday night overtook Assemblywoman Ling Ling Chang, R-Diamond Bar. He led Tuesday morning by 829 votes.

Newman has trailed since the first vote counts were reported on Election Day and was down by 5,051 votes as recently as last week. Since then, Orange, Los Angeles and San Bernardino counties – the three counties that the 29th straddles – have tallied a large number of mail-in and provisional ballots, which have so far favored Newman.

Those counties had thousands of ballots left to count as of Sunday, so the race for the 29th could still go either way.

Democrats entered Election Day needing to pick up two Assembly seats and one state Senate seat to gain a supermajority, which would allow them to raise taxes and place measures on the statewide ballot without Republican support.

Democrats have already surpassed two-thirds control in the Assembly this election cycle, but they need a win in the 29th – the last undecided state race – to gain a full supermajority.

Newman and Chang are vying to replace termed-out GOP state Sen. Bob Huff.

Contact the writer: jgraham@scng.com or 714-796-7960