Posted on 11/21/2008 6:08:04 PM PST by St. Louis Conservative
Democrat Charlie Brown closed to within 329 votes of Republican Tom McClintock Friday in the ongoing ballot count for the 4th Congressional District race.
Brown, from Roseville, was as close to McClintock's lead as he'd been since Election Day, and an e-mail to campaign supporters said that provisional ballots from Nevada County deserved the credit.
"Every day, we are hearing that election day provisional ballots, thousands of which have not yet been tallied, are breaking for Charlie by substantial margins in Placer, El Dorado, and Nevada counties," Brown campaign manager Todd Stenhouse said in the Friday e-mail, which also requested donations to cover vote-monitoring costs.
The percentages in the race remained with Brown at 49.9 percent and McClintock at 50.1 percent.
(Excerpt) Read more at politickerca.com ...
Is there any reason whatsoever to think that McClintock can actually win?
He’s still in the lead.
The jerrymandering on this district is beyond imagining.
I crosses, what 5 or 6 counties and maybe 200+miles?
Very hard to say what could happen here. McClintock garners a lot of respect for his knowledge and professionalism, even among Dems in Sacto. The fact that he might lose in a “safe” district shows just how bad this election went.
Why is it that in every one of these close/recount situations, the Democrat is the one making strides? And again, no one on our side will step up and raise the roof. We’ll just let it happen.
Even in a bad year McClintock should have carried the day here.
I think the big factor was that he was attacked by a RINO with $6 million worth of ads during the primary and then Brown ran an exclusively negative campaign, along with the DCCC and lefty 527s.
Nevada County is a Dem strong hold but the 6 other counties in this district are conservative. Brown has shot his wad as all the votes should be counted in Nevada county with many to be counted in the rest of the district...
McClintock claimed victory within the past fifteen minutes; seems he is leading now by almost 1800 votes with the Dem-leaning Nevada County finished counting and prov/absentee ballots out in only a few scattered precincts left in other counties that even if they went overwhelmingly for Brown, would not give him enough to overcome such a lead.
How many ballots are left to count?
Why does it take so long??
Awesome! I am happy to declare my post officially meaningless.
That’s good news. Wonder if Oller tried to get votes for Brown out of spite.
“The jerrymandering on this district is beyond imagining.
I crosses, what 5 or 6 counties and maybe 200+miles?”
? There’s nothing unusual or wrong with the way this district is drawn.
>> Why does it take so long??
Because the Republican is still in the lead. /s
That’s good news. Wonder if Oller tried to get votes for Brown out of spite.
McClintock campaign claims victory in CA-04
State Sen. Tom McClintock's congressional campaign claimed victory Friday evening, saying the final vote count in Placer and Nevada counties gave the Republican a 1,793-vote lead that Democrat Charlie Brown can't overcome.
"There doesn't seem to be any way statistically he could do it," said Bill George, a spokesman for McClintock.
According to the Placer County elections Web site, McClintock received 85,357 votes there, to 81,850 for Brown. The percentages were 50.9 percent for McClintock to 48.8 percent for Brown.
George said his understanding was that Placer County, which had the largest population of any county fully within the 4th District, had completed its count of vote-by-mail and absentee ballots.
Officials with the Placer County Registrar of Voters' office could not be reached for comment Friday evening.
McClintock's campaign said the count was also finished in Nevada County, which Brown won 57.7 percent to 42.3 percent for McClintock.
George said there were a handful of outstanding ballots in Butte, El Dorado and Sacramento counties, but not enough to give Brown an edge.
A call to Brown's campaign manager, Todd Stenhouse, was not immediately returned Friday evening. Stenhouse and Brown, as well as McClintock, took part in congressional orientation activities this week in Washington D.C.
McClintock would return to California tonight or tomorrow, George said, but the campaign did not plan to make any formal victory announcement at this point.
The Sacramento Bee - Nov. 21, 2008
McClintock widens lead over Brown (excerpt)
State Sen. Tom McClintock's campaign on Friday surged to nearly a 1,800-vote lead in the tight congressional battle against Democrat Charlie Brown on Friday, perhaps sealing victory in the foothill district.
"We're not claiming victory, but we just think it's mathematically impossible for (Brown) to win," said Bill George, spokesman for McClintock.
George said the thousands of Placer County votes tallied Friday stretched McClintock's lead from barely 300 votes to 1,793, with only about 4,500 more votes to count in the nine-county district.
Brown spokesman Todd Stenhouse said Brown would not concede, noting that thousands more votes remain to be counted, most of which are provisional ballots that "have been breaking very, very strongly for Charlie."
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