A tightly contested race to replace Janet Nguyen on the Orange County Board of Supervisors remains too close to call today, with just two votes separating Andrew Do and Lou Correa.

Do, who was Nguyen’s chief of staff, led former state Sen. Lou Correa with 16,202 votes compared to 16,200 votes for the former state senator, with all 101 precincts reporting, according to the Orange County Registrar of Voters. There are still last-minute absentee ballots to be counted, and both candidates are hopeful.

“I believe in the end, we will pull through,” Do told supporters on Tuesday night at Azteca Mexican restaurant in Garden Grove, where Nguyen introduced him as “a friend and someone for who I believe the numbers look positive.”

“It’s going to take a while for this all to work itself out over the next few days,” Do said.

Correa told supporters gathered at his campaign office in Garden Grove that the Tuesday night results – when he was leading – showed people believe in him, but he’s not ready to accept victory until every vote is counted.

“The early results are promising,” Correa said as he headed to a party at the Orange County Employees Association. “I believe the respectful thing to do, the right thing to do is wait until each and every vote is counted before I declare victory or something other than victory.”

Correa has been a major player in Orange County politics since he was elected to the state Assembly in 1998. He won the 1st District board seat in 2004, but he resigned in 2006 after being elected to the state Senate. He was easily re-elected in 2010, then announced his bid for his old supervisor seat after term limits prevented him from seeking another Senate term.

Do, a lawyer with the firm FitzGerald, Yap & Kreditor and a former Orange County deputy district attorney, was elected to the Garden Grove City Council in 2008 but resigned in 2011, one year after resigning as Nguyen’s chief of staff (he was rehired last year.)

Yet Do, a political novice compared to Correa, enjoyed wide support from established Republicans who helped propel his former boss to the state Senate.

Nguyen – who was elected to the Board of Supervisors in 2007 in a tight race that led to a recount and judicial review – campaigned for Do and rehired him as her chief of staff about six months before he began his bid for her seat.

She was the first Vietnamese American supervisor and is the first Vietnamese American elected to the state Senate. Her popularity combined with the tendency of Vietnamese American voters to support Vietnamese American candidates led some political experts to predict trouble for Correa.

But along with longtime name recognition, Correa had a financial advantage. Backed by labor unions, he raised nearly $80,000 in six weeks – including $13,000 just on Monday – and had nearly $200,000 left over from his state Senate bids.

Meanwhile, Do raised $66,574, but he spent much more. Campaign-finance forms show about $123,000 in unpaid campaign bills.

Contact the writer: mcuniff@ocregister.com or 949-492-5122. Twitter: @meghanncuniff.