Democrat Kamala Harris is up on Republican Steve Cooley by 14,838 votes in the race for California attorney general, but hundreds of thousands, if not a million, of provisional and absentee ballots must still be counted during the next month.

A winner may not be declared until early December. However, Harris holds 14-point advantage in Los Angeles County, where Cooley is the district attorney. The strong showing in the state's most Democratic county came late Tuesday night, wiping away Cooley's early based on mainly early ballots.

Harris campaign is predicting she will win. Cooley's campaign is not taking a guess as of now.

"We will continue to monitor the situation," said Kevin Spillane, Cooley's senior consultant in a statement. "The only thing we are certain of is that the final outcome will be close."

Harris, the San Francisco District Attorney, intensified her campaigning during the final two weeks before Election Day. She hammered Cooley harder than she had been, jumping on a report that stated Cooley failed to report about $4,000 in gifts on disclosure forms.

Though at funding disadvantage to Cooley, she launched a late television ad campaign that featured Cooley saying he would collect his Los Angeles County pension and his state pension, if elected.

She also made numerous stops in Los Angeles at local churches and at Democratic National Committee rally at USC. At the rally, she was endorsed by President Barack Obama.

"It had a hugely positive effect on us," Harris' campaign strategist Ace Smith said in a conference call Wednesday. "It made people stop and really think about this race."

Harris began touting polls showing her closing the margin between her Cooley in the campaign season's final days, especially because she was roping in independent and declined-to-state voters. A five-point gap at beginning of Ocotober in favor of Cooley has reversed to a 0.2 percent advantage for Harris based on all ballots except for provisional ballots and absentee ballots not received ahead of Election Day.

Smith said the way returns from Los Angeles began shifting in favor of Harris showed their late messaging and campaigning paid off. About 400,000 ballots in Los Angeles County have yet  to be counted. Smith predicted 230,000 would go to Harris and 170,000 to Cooley.

Harris has said she would follow the state's death penalty law, ignoring her personal opposition to the statute if elected. Governor-elect Jerry Brown as done the same during his stint as attorney general.

Cooley, who supports the death penalty, focused on the topic during the only debate between the two candidates. In campaign commercials, the conservative Los Angeles District Attorney criticized Harris for not seeking the death penalty on a cop-killer. Most Californians support the death penalty, and voters tend to side with more conservative candidates for the attorney general post. No one other than a white male has served the as the state's top prosecutor.

Cooley also said he would battle costly mandates from federal judges regarding state prisons while Harris said she would not.

He has been a tough-on-politicians Los Angeles district attorney while Harris is the youth-rehabilitation-focused and environmental-justice-seeking liberal district attorney of one of the state's most liberal cities.

Neither candidate supported Proposition 19, which would have legalized marijuana in California, or the Arizona immigration law. Both Cooley and Harris said they would have no plans to sue the new federal healthcare law.

Cooley would defend California's gay marriage ban while Harris said she would not appeal a decision striking down the ban.

Harris doesn't support Proposition 23, which would suspend California's landmark environmental regulation statute. Cooley hasn't taken a definitive position on the issue, saying that he would defend whatever the voters decide.

Born to an Indian mother and African-American father, Harris is seen as potential rising star among Democrats.

Reach executive producer Paresh Dave here. Follow him on Twitter: @peard33.