Free Republic

To guard against fraudulent votes or improper counting, the Harmer campaign established a comprehensive ballot-integrity operation. As the volunteer attorney who oversaw it, I want to share some of what our volunteers observed on Election Day and during the post-election canvass. Election Day On Election Day, trained volunteer poll watchers monitored targeted polling stations throughout the district from the time they opened to the late hours after they closed. At most of the polling places we observed, few ballot integrity issues arose. But several polling places experienced serious and persistent problems involving vote-by-mail ballots ("VBMs," or absentee ballots) delivered at...

Rep. Jerry McNerney has won his race to retain his 11th Congressional District seat. The latest ballot-tallying updates from the most populous part of the district showed McNerney, D-Pleasanton, again had widened his lead over Republican challenger David Harmer to a margin of 2,475 votes, or about 1 percent of the 237,808 ballots counted. The Associated Press reported fewer than 1,900 ballots remained to be counted. McNerney had declared victory Nov. 10, when he was up by 1,681 votes or about seven-tenths of a percent; Harmer has yet to concede, and recently attended the GOP's freshman orientation on Capitol Hill....

McNerney takes his seat in 111th Congress; Harmer at orientation for new members -- Both 11th District Congressional candidates in the Nov. 2 General Election are now in Washington, D.C. Congressman Jerry McNerney (D-Pleasanton) returned to his congressional seat for the opening session yesterday of one week of deliberation before the Thanksgiving recess. He plans to return again after Thanksgiving for the final session of the 111th Congress. Also in Washington is McNerney's Republican challenger in the still-undecided 11th District race, David Harmer. Harmer attended the orientation for new members of Congress. "Since we don't yet know whether I'll become...

Two-term Democrat Congressman Jerry McNerney tried to put an end to the closely fought race for the California 11th Congressional District, but opponent David Harmer refuses to concede the battle. McNerney declared to a small gathering of supporters that "The votes are in, the results are clear. The voters of this district have chosen me to be their congressman for the next session." As of Thursday evening, McNerney led Republican David Harmer with an edge of 1,685 votes out of just over 230,000 counted.

For most of the country, the midterm elections ended last Tuesday when the final ballots were counted. However, the race in California’s 11th Congressional District remains a tight race between Democratic Rep. Jerry McNerney and Republican challenger David Harmer. In a careful recount of the ballots, Harmer is currently trailing McNerney by just 2,000 votes, leaving no room for error. Bay Area tea party members have been serving as careful watchdogs over the process. One group, the Tri-Valley Patriots, caught an interesting snapshot which suggests some ballot counters may have a vested interest in keeping the Democrat in office:

Democratic Rep. Jim Costa has declared victory in his race against Republican challenger Andy Vidak. New vote tallies from Fresno County put Costa 1,200 votes ahead of Vidak — Costa was losing to Vidak Tuesday by 145 votes — and his campaign believes his lead will continue to increase as the final absentee ballots are counted. “This has been a hard-fought campaign. It appears that it is now over. I believe our 1,200-vote margin will not only stand up, but will increase as the remaining few ballots are counted,” Costa said in a statement Wednesday evening.

The hotly contested race for California’s 11th congressional district is up for grabs, and Republican David Harmer is suing Contra Costa County over its method of verifying ballots. McNerney has widened his lead from an election night margin of 121 votes.

Waiting game in 11th District by Jon Mendelson / Tracy Press Tracy Press Nov 05, 2010 David Harmer (left) and Rep. Jerry McNerney are still unsure as to who will sit in the next Congress. Will Tracy next be represented in Congress by Jerry McNerney or David Harmer? It’s a question that might not be answered for weeks. That’s because even though the incumbent Democrat congressman led Republican challenger Harmer by 134 votes as of Thursday, according to the California Secretary of State, thousands of ballots remain uncounted. The 11th Congressional District spans four counties — Alameda, Contra Costa, Santa...

In the gerrymander-gone-awry California 11th congressional district, sprawling across four counties from Gilroy to Lodi, incumbent Democrat Jerry McNerney is ahead 121 votes to GOP challenger David Harmer: McNerney 82,124 votes, 47.5% Harmer 82,003 votes 47.4% A third party spoiler, Tracy's David Christensen of the conservative American Independent Party, has 8,809 or 5.1% That's with all precincts reporting as of 5:41 a.m. It would appear that Harmer would have won had Christensen not been in the race.

In the gerrymander-gone-awry California 11th congressional district, sprawling across four counties from Gilroy to Lodi, incumbent Democrat Jerry McNerney is ahead 121 votes to GOP challenger David Harmer: McNerney 82,124 votes, 47.5% Harmer 82,003 votes 47.4% A third party spoiler, Tracy's David Christensen of the conservative American Independent Party, has 8,809 or 5.1% That's with all precincts reporting as of 5:41 a.m. It would appear that Harmer would have won had Christensen not been in the race. . . .

We'll see what happens here.

CA House 11: Republican challenger David Harmer in a tight race to oust Democrat incumbent Jerry McNerney.

I am sorry for the vanity but I got so angry last night and this morning I nearly retailiated. McNerney's people - I can't say who, most likely Liberals, Dems, Marxists, MoveOn.org and/or the Commies, took ALL of David Harmer's signs down all over Pleasanton. I wanted to go out at 2 AM and remove all of McNerney's signs, but decided, with my wife's advice, that doing what they do is utter hypocricy. Saul Alinsky would be proud of these maggot Leftists who justify the means to an end. Go Harmer!

With just 72 hours until the polls close, the numbers are breaking for the Harmer campaign in a dramatically positive way. Last week, RealClearPolitics moved California’s 11th Congressional District into their “Leans GOP” column. This week, Larry Sabato, Director of the U.Va. Center for Politics, agreed, promoting California-11 from “Toss Up” to “Leans Republican” — the only congressional seat in California presently held by a Democrat to be so rated, and one of only two on the entire Pacific Coast. Now FiveThirtyEight, the New York Times election blog, gives David Harmer a 70% chance of winning on Tuesday, with incumbent...

But as Bay Area commuters populated — and liberalized — the district’s new suburbs, Mr. McNerney appeared to be a symbol of its new complexion: moderate, mild-mannered and more concerned with local issues than national battles. That, however, was then. Today, many of those new suburbs sit in a region with some of the highest foreclosure rates in the country. Since 2006, the district has lost more than 30,000 residents. And while unemployment statewide is more than 12 percent, the rate is more than twice that in several towns in the 11th. All of which is obvious to Mr. McNerney....

"McNerney has tried to chart a centrist course"

While the California races for governor and U.S. Senate are hot, the battle for a single House seat in the East Bay and Central Valley has turned into a bellwether for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's hopes of retaining her Democratic majority. Both national political parties are pouring money into the contest between two-term incumbent Democrat and former windmill executive Rep. Jerry McNerney, 59 - who voted with Pelosi on the stimulus, the bank rescue, health care, and cap and trade - and Republican David Harmer, 48, a small-government conservative and son of a former California lieutenant governor under Ronald Reagan...

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The Democratic incumbent in California's most reliably competitive congressional district appears to have a significant financial advantage leading up to the Nov. 2 election. Rep. Jerry McNerney, who represents Northern California's 11th Congressional District, had raised $700,000 during the past three months, leaving him with $1.4 million cash on hand, his campaign said Friday, the campaign-finance reporting deadline for U.S. Senate and House candidates. His Republican opponent, San Ramon attorney David Harmer, has reported more than $550,000 in donations between July 1 and Sept. 30. His campaign said it had $489,278 cash on hand. Last quarter, McNerney...

(CBS 5) – The third time may be the charm for Republican David Harmer as he tries to get elected to Congress, according to a KPIX-TV CBS 5 poll released Tuesday. The poll, conducted for CBS 5 by SurveyUSA, found Harmer edges out Democratic Congressman Jerry McNerney in California’s 11th congressional district by 48% to 42%.

Republicans are trying to regain control of Congress in November but political oddsmakers have said there is only one Democrat in California at risk of losing his congressional seat - Rep. Jerry McNerney of Pleasanton. His challenger in the Bay Area's 11th Congressional District is Republican David Harmer, an attorney who says he is running to rein in federal spending. Republicans are using the same charges against McNerney as they are against Democrats around the country - that he supports bigger government, has voted to increase taxes and is in lockstep with his party's leadership. "On every major vote, he's...