David Harmer has run for Congress three times.  Twice here in California, and a third time over a decade ago in Utah.  He comes from a political heritage, as his father was appointed by Reagan to serve out a year as Lt. Governor.  But, despite the fact that he lost by 2,658 votes, that doesn’t mean that he’s going to give in quite yet. No sir-ree!

As we told you the other day, with all the votes counted — but not Secretary of State certified — Republican David Harmer is down 2,658 votes in his East Bay congressional race against incumbent Dem Jerry McNerney. But Dave told me Thurdsay he ain’t quitting…just yet.

When you lose a race by a 1 percent sliver, he said, you want to make sure you exhaust all your possibilities.

His race was so close, he was asked to participate in freshman orientation for new House members. He went. “I consider a lot of them (other freshman) friends now.”

Now, he needs a miracle to be sworn in with them.

“It just seems prudent to review the precinct-level data to make sure there are no anomalies there,” Harmer told me. He doesn’t expect the anomaly-hunting to last more than a couple of days. His staff is sifting through the data, which it couldn’t obtain until the vote count was certified by counties until earlier this week.(SF Gate)

You can certainly understand his reluctance, but coming from a political background, this is less than classy.  The nearly 2700 votes are not going to fall from the sky for Harmer.  After all, Steve Cooley conceded with a lower (percentage wise) margin.  It is hard to imagine Harmer getting another crack at this apple, after losing three times.  However, he certainly is persistent, and he might want another shot come the new districts in 2012.  Just don’t expect his track record to change.