The AP has called the race in California’s 20th district for Democratic incumbent Jim Costa.
SACRAMENTO (AP): Democratic Rep. Jim Costa has narrowly won enough votes to retain his Central Valley seat.
That’s not a surprise, as everyone had been treating this one as a victory for almost a week, ever since a huge ballot dump from Fresno Co. pushed Costa into a late lead over GOP challenger Andy Vidak.
In New York’s 25th District, however, it’s over, and GOP challenger Ann Marie Buerkle has won. Dan Maffei just conceded the race, trailing by 567 votes. He’d been planning a court date concerning the recount today, but instead decided to pull the plug. Here’s the best part of his statement:
The electorate may have changed tremendously from 2008 to 2010 in terms of who turned out to vote, but I kept my pledges to the people who elected me and I will forever be proud of that. Not only do I not apologize for my positions on the stimulus, the health care bill, financial reform, and the credit card bill, but my only regret is that there were not more opportunities to make healthcare more affordable to people and businesses and get more resources to the region for needed public projects – particularly transportation and public schools.
That brings the total GOP gain in the House to 63 seats, with only two seats left to be called and/or conceded (CA-11, looking like a definite Dem hold, and NY-01, a nailbiter but with some Dem momentum).
Maffei needs to come back in 2012. I think he can win the seat even after redistricting and the country wont be this far to the right on the pendulum for a while after this year.
who saw those “VIDAK FOR CONGRESS” signs on the properties of Central Valley farms, this heartens me. A generation ago, they put up signs that said stuff like “IMPEACH EARL WARREN”, so it’s nothing new.
sounding too blunt and too extreme, visiting Ann Marie Buerkle’s site made me want to punch a baby. Her issues page is a mix of Palin, Reagan, and Fox News-like talking points that doesn’t begin to make sense. Maybe she’s a lot more reasonable that her web site is letting on, but if not, she needs to go down in 2012.