Cliff Hanger in a Sea of Blue
California's 4th Congressional District, Republican since 1992, combines
vast regions, sparsely populated, and growing suburbs and exurbs.
Charlie Brown (D) Refuses to Give up in California's
4th Congressional District
Michael Collins
"Scoop" Independent News
California turned blue with a vengeance in the 2008 presidential election. President-elect Obama's 61% majority plus a 78% turnout rate statewide were enough to strip the Republicans of all but one county with a significant population.
The "blue tsunami" started in San Diego County at the southern tip of the state and flowed up the Pacific coastal counties through Mendocino. The only county with a major population that remained loyal to the Republicans was Orange County, the former center of right wing politics in the Golden State, and that was by a mere 2.6% McCain margin.
Yet, the 4th Congressional District is still counting votes with a too-close-to-call election. John T. Doolittle (R) retired this year after holding the seat since 1992. Democrat Charlie Brown took a second run for the seat, having lost to Doolittle in 2006 by just 3 points. In 2008, Brown received nationwide support from high profile veterans and veteran's groups and was well funded from a variety of sources.
His opponent, Tom McClintock (R), hoped to maintain Republican dominance. McClintock was considered one of the most conservative members of the California legislature. His main issue in the campaign was fencing the border to keep out illegal workers.
On election night McClintock had less than a 1,000 vote lead with thousands of uncounted ballots. Rather than surrender, Brown issued the following statement on Nov. 5:
"We understand that there are still more than 40,000 ballots remaining to be processed, and we will not know the outcome of this election until all of those votes are counted.
"Our priority today is to support a fair and accurate count of every ballot."
Throughout the process since election night when the votes were announced, Brown and his campaign have maintained calm. Brown refused to concede as is the common practice. Given the absence of 40,000 votes from the final count, this was a sensible position. By keeping the campaign open, he's assured a witnessed count of those votes.
On Nov. 14, this statement appeared on his campaign website:
"As of this morning, just 532 votes separated Charlie Brown and Tom McClintock, with more than 31,000 absentee and provisional votes left to be tallied in five CA 04 counties.
"Together with an amazing group of election observers, we are working 24/7 to ensure that every vote is counted, and every voice is heard in this pivotal race."
After 23 days of counting, there are still 17,000 uncounted votes. The current standing in the race is Charlie Brown (Dem) 182,967 with 49.7% and Tom McClintock (Rep) 184,543 at 50.3%. The 1,500 vote lead for the Republican represents 11% of the estimated 17,000 ballots left to be counted. Of the 17,000, 2,000 are provisional ballots cast by voters who show up at the wrong precinct or claim they're registered despite not showing up on the voter rolls. Fifteen thousand of that total are ballots that were rejected for some reason and need to be re-examined. (See chart of vote count by county with turnout and count status).
