Democrat Steve Fox, recently elected to represent California’s 36th Assembly, is no longer being contested for his closely won seat, said a campaign official.

“The way a recounts work is that anyone can request it, but they have to pay for it,” said Bill Hearns, who works on Fox’ staff. “So you can request a specific recount of certain precincts if you think there’s a problem  there. But it’s very costly to do this,” Hearns said.

Smith requested 90 precincts that he wanted to count out of 200 in the district.

The tally certified by the California secretary of state last week counted a 145-vote lead for Fox, which is what spurred the initial recount request.

After a recount of the first 30 or so precincts, whereby Smith gained a few votes, the opposition began to see diminishing returns, according to Hearns.

Smith could not be reached by phone Wednesday afternoon to comment on the story.

The move bolstered Democrats’ supermajority in the Assembly, who picked up several seats in area that were traditional Republican strongholds, including the Antelope/Santa Clarita valleys’ 36th District, and another seat in Orange County.