Charlie Brown locked in a close race facing a recount

By David GreenwaldNovember 6, 200816 comments
While election day brought great news to many at both the national and the local level, it was not the perfect storm that some had hoped for on the Democratic side. There are in fact still a number of very close races that still need to be resolved.

One of the races that is so close and so important if you are on the left is the Fourth Congressional District. Ret. Lt. Colonel Charlie Brown is locked in a very tight battle with State Senator Tom McClintock, a right wing icon in California. The only problem with Senator McClintock is that he is running for a district that is over 400 miles from his home. There is no law that saw you must live in the Congressional District that you run for, only the same state. However, McClintock could not even vote for himself.

It is a district that has a 15 percent Republican convention, and yet Charlie Brown came within a nose in 2006 of defeating longtime incumbent John Doolittle who has since be indicted. And now he is even closer to McClintock.

But this will go to the courts and the recount committee.

Here’s the current numbers:

Charlie Brown (Dem) 155,735 49.8%
Tom McClintock (Rep) 156,379 50.2%

A scant 554 separates the two.

Charlie Brown issued a statement yesterday afternoon to his supporters:

“I want to express my heartfelt appreciation to every single voter who participated in yesterday’s historic election. It appears we are headed for a record turnout. 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. I want to thank the election department staffs and directors of all of the counties who are working so hard and so well to assure an accurate count.

I want to thank my wife Jan, my entire family and my entire campaign team for all of their tremendous work during these past many months. I am proud of the campaign we ran—one focused on putting patriotism before partisanship and solving problems. While I remain very confident that we will prevail once all the ballots are counted, I know that this team has already won important battles for veterans, for families facing tough economic times and for so many other important priorities.”

There are roughly 40,000 provisional ballot still to be counted. Those could swing towards Charlie Brown. McClintock has not claimed victory. And even once those votes are counted, there will likely be a recount.

Charlie Brown said on Wednesday morning:

“It appears we are headed for a record turnout. 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.”

It could therefore be weeks before we know the outcome of this election.

—David M. Greenwald reporting

Author

  • David Greenwald

    Greenwald is the founder, editor, and executive director of the Davis Vanguard. He founded the Vanguard in 2006. David Greenwald moved to Davis in 1996 to attend Graduate School at UC Davis in Political Science. He lives in South Davis with his wife Cecilia Escamilla Greenwald and three children.

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Elections

16 comments

  1. I was informed last night that one element which helped Tom McClintock in this race was the Yes on 8 campaign. They organized and worked for McClintock and worked against Brown, all because of the two candidates’ difference on Prop 8. Without that funding and work, I was told, McClintock would have done much worse.

    I noticed in looking at the results on Prop 8, that every county which is in CD-4 voted in favor of it. Some of them overwhelmingly:

    Modoc 74%
    Butte 57%
    Sierra 64%
    El Dorado 59%
    Placer 60%
    Lassen 71%
    Plumas 64%

  2. I was informed last night that one element which helped Tom McClintock in this race was the Yes on 8 campaign. They organized and worked for McClintock and worked against Brown, all because of the two candidates’ difference on Prop 8. Without that funding and work, I was told, McClintock would have done much worse.

    I noticed in looking at the results on Prop 8, that every county which is in CD-4 voted in favor of it. Some of them overwhelmingly:

    Modoc 74%
    Butte 57%
    Sierra 64%
    El Dorado 59%
    Placer 60%
    Lassen 71%
    Plumas 64%

  3. I was informed last night that one element which helped Tom McClintock in this race was the Yes on 8 campaign. They organized and worked for McClintock and worked against Brown, all because of the two candidates’ difference on Prop 8. Without that funding and work, I was told, McClintock would have done much worse.

    I noticed in looking at the results on Prop 8, that every county which is in CD-4 voted in favor of it. Some of them overwhelmingly:

    Modoc 74%
    Butte 57%
    Sierra 64%
    El Dorado 59%
    Placer 60%
    Lassen 71%
    Plumas 64%

  4. I was informed last night that one element which helped Tom McClintock in this race was the Yes on 8 campaign. They organized and worked for McClintock and worked against Brown, all because of the two candidates’ difference on Prop 8. Without that funding and work, I was told, McClintock would have done much worse.

    I noticed in looking at the results on Prop 8, that every county which is in CD-4 voted in favor of it. Some of them overwhelmingly:

    Modoc 74%
    Butte 57%
    Sierra 64%
    El Dorado 59%
    Placer 60%
    Lassen 71%
    Plumas 64%

  5. McClintock is an opportunist and went to the YES ON 8 campaign and asked for their help. I never knew Brown’s position on 8 and I don’t care, because he is much better than the carpetbagger known as McClintock.

    The guy was never to be trusted when he was at the Capitol and he is not to be trusted now.

  6. McClintock is an opportunist and went to the YES ON 8 campaign and asked for their help. I never knew Brown’s position on 8 and I don’t care, because he is much better than the carpetbagger known as McClintock.

    The guy was never to be trusted when he was at the Capitol and he is not to be trusted now.

  7. McClintock is an opportunist and went to the YES ON 8 campaign and asked for their help. I never knew Brown’s position on 8 and I don’t care, because he is much better than the carpetbagger known as McClintock.

    The guy was never to be trusted when he was at the Capitol and he is not to be trusted now.

  8. McClintock is an opportunist and went to the YES ON 8 campaign and asked for their help. I never knew Brown’s position on 8 and I don’t care, because he is much better than the carpetbagger known as McClintock.

    The guy was never to be trusted when he was at the Capitol and he is not to be trusted now.

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