The atmosphere Tuesday night at candidate Betsy Butler's postelection party at Memphis on the Beach in Manhattan Beach was positive and congenial, but the race for the Assembly's 53rd District's seat turned into a tense nail-biter. 

The district traditionally votes solidly Democratic, but like a lot of Democrats in this contentious midterm election, Butler found herself in a tighter than expected contest. 

For most of the evening, Butler trailed her opponent, Republican and tea party supporter Nathan Mintz, by a small margin of about 500 votes. 

As of 2 a.m. Wednesday, with 81 percent of the precincts reporting, the election was deemed still too close to call, but Butler had managed to pick up the slack and inch ahead of Mintz by about 1,000 votes.

Two hours later, Butler had 50.3 percent with 59,222 votes, trumping Mintz, who had 43.1 percent with 50,839 votes.

Butler's positions are in line with most Californians, particularly on environmental issues. Most Californians are sympathetic to environmental causes. Her high standing among environmental organizations may make her even more green than Lisa Green, her Green Party competitor in the Assembly race.

David Holtzman of the League of Women Voters, a longtime friend of Butler, said that on environmental issues, Butler is "consistently green."

When asked what he thought Butler would do for the people in her district, he said with a sly grin, "She'll help people keep their homes by doing what needs to be done to prevent the sea level from rising."

Butler cites jobs and education as the two toughest problems facing Californians. Helping California build a "new green economy" is a way to help solve the first problem, she says.

She consistently emphasizes the need for more research and development into green technologies, and for providing incentives to private citizens to reduce their dependency on oil and gas through solar panels, water cisterning and taking themselves off the power grid.

Her ideas don't seem to be radically out of line with the views of a majority of people in her district. Butler's opponent, on the other hand, supported the unpopular Proposition 23 and wanted to roll back the national health care reform plan.

It's hard to understand why Butler's lead is so wafer-thin, without considering the influence of the tea party, since the 27-year-old Mintz actually founded the South Bay chapter of the group.  

The tea party movement has been attributed with helping Republicans take back control of the House of Representatives. Much ado has been made in the media about tea party activists riding a wave of voter anger in a successful populist uprising against big government and incumbent politicians.

Mintz positioned himself as one of the new breed of anti-establishment upstarts and described Butler as yet another career politician who needed to be sent a message.

Indeed, Butler fits the profile of Democrats targeted by the tea party with her extensive background in state and national politics. She was even born in Sacramento. 

Kelley Willis, past president of the West Los Angeles Democratic Club, said Butler emerged as the front runner for the 53rd Assembly seat way back in 2007 at the state Democratic convention.

"She became known among the other candidates as the one to beat, because she was well-connected and had a high profile on the state and national level," Willis said.

Butler's solid political pedigree, having served in the Clinton administration's Commerce Department and as former president of the National Women's Political Caucus (Los Angeles Westside Chapter), undoubtedly helped her beat eight other candidates to win the Democratic primary.

She seemed like a shoo-in to win the Assembly seat. And then controversy erupted.

Someone began distributing fliers claiming that "Betsy Butler has taken thousands of dollars from registered lobbyists who represent big oil, drug and insurance companies." 

Robert J. Ellsberg of The Huffington Post traced the fliers to a coalition of oil, drug and pharmaceutical companies that produced them in a very expensive campaign to smear Butler and ruin her green credentials. 

Butler discovered the misleading propaganda leaflets the same way the people she wanted to represent in the 53rd District did—by opening her mailbox.  

It's a strange political environment when oil companies like BP spend a fortune to spread misinformation about a candidate by accusing her of being "in bed" with oil companies like, well, themselves. 

When asked why her candidacy is such a threat to insurance and oil companies, Butler points to her experience working for trial lawyers, as well as her philosophy that "Chevron has a lot of people speaking for them. There are not enough people in government speaking up for the average person."

She is fond of saying, "The people of my district, and the people of California, are my 'special interest.' "

There is one interesting irony about the propaganda deluge against Butler that the national media seemed to miss: If the tea party is supposed to be against the "special interests," why were the special interests targeting Butler, spending nearly $200,000 on a smear campaign, and helping her tea party opponent?

Conversation at Butler's party centered around Republican wins in the House, and why Americans would put the party that led the country to financial ruin back in office.

Many Democrats think there seems to be a disconnect between perception and reality with tea party believers supporting the very special interests that don't have their best interests at heart. This disconnect is fostered by misinformation similar to the flier campaign meant to bring down Butler's candidacy.

In a national election deemed by many to be a referendum on President Barack Obama's agenda, Butler told Patch, "There is frustration with the president's policies out there."

What lessons does Butler take from the rout of Democrats in the House, and her own tough fight for her Assembly seat?

Butler believes the Democratic Party should stick to its agenda. She emphasizes, though, that it is important to work with tea partyers, despite their anti-government stance.

She believes that, as the daughter of a Republican father and a staunchly Democratic mother, she has the experience to bring diametrically opposing viewpoints together. 

Although this election may seem to be a referendum against government, Butler points out that the Democrats can prove that in many issues, especially when it comes to the environment, infrastructure, homeland security and education, government has a very important role to play.  

"When someone tries to board a plane with a bomb, and everyone's wondering, where was the government to protect me —everybody hates government until they need it," she said.