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.

Incumbent Democratic Congress members Jerry McNerney and Jim Costa each had some very long election nights. But while it hasn’t been easy, the good money is now on both of them sticking around another two years.

McNerney:

“With the vast majority of votes tallied, the results are clear. Congressman McNerney now has an insurmountable lead,” McNerney campaign manager Doug Greven said in a news release. (IBA)

Costa:

Fresno Democrat Jim Costa declared victory Wednesday in a grueling battle to keep the 20th Congressional District seat after he took a 1,200-vote lead over Republican Andy Vidak, a political neophyte from Hanford.

“This has been a hard-fought campaign, obviously, but now it appears as if it is over,” Costa said at a news conference.

Costa made his announcement after Fresno County elections officials released an updated vote count that put him ahead for the first time.()

Of course, there are a few votes left to count in both of these districts, but the math is just rough on both Harmer and Vidak.  The votes left are likely to favor the Democrats, making those numbers up seems extremely unlikely.

(Good post on Harmer’s BS claims – he’s trying to suppress the vote to steal an election he lost. – promoted by Robert Cruickshank)

In what I believe is the closest Congressional race in the country, Jerry McNerney held a 121 vote lead as of Wednesday morning.  Absentees counted in Alameda and Santa Clara counties have increased his margin to 568 as of this morning, but those counties were his strongest ones.  Now Harmer wants to challenge the signatures (and stop the counting of) of mail in ballots when the voter is not there to respond.  

Now Harmer has filed a lawsuit against the Contra Costa County election officials claiming the right to challenge the signatures on absentee ballots, even as those voters are not present to respond.  

Congressional District 11 GOP nominee David Harmer will seek a court order in Superior Court in Martinez this afternoon to stop the vote-by-mail signature verification process in Contra Costa County.

Harmer, who ran against incumbent Democratic Rep. Jerry McNerney on Tuesday, says his team should be allowed to challenge the signatures on vote-by-mail ballots.

Contra Costa Election Clerk Steve Weir disagrees. He says the county’s written procedures and guidelines clearly state that observers may challenge the process of counting ballots but not individual signatures.

Challenges to a specific voter’s right to cast a ballot must be made through a pollworker at the polls or through a challenge of a voter who has requested a vote-by-mail ballot, Weir said.  This allows the voter to respond to a challenge of his or her right to cast a ballot.

“While Harmer has claimed irregularities, not one instance has been presented to us,” Weir said.

Harmer ran best with the early voting, but as election day votes were counted, McNerney slowly caught up.  Many (apparently including Harmer’s campaign) believe that late absentees will favor McNerney.  

In Contra Costa County, the ballots at issue are those that were mailed but not received by last Friday, those delivered to the polls on Tuesday, and provisional ballots.  I understand that there are well over 10,000 ballots.

I have heard nothing from San Jaoquin County where over have of the voters are, but I am suspicious that the far-right is out in force to stop a full and fair count.  Florida 2000 anyone?

There is a hearing today on a TRO.  

When we first started Democracy for America, one of our goals was to help ordinary people get involved in grassroots politics.  Thousands of you joined our community and brought about real change by making phone calls, sending emails, and knocking on doors.  

I need your help for someone who, just like you, stood up for change.  

In 2006, Jerry McNerney, a wind energy engineer, defeated one of the country’s most corrupt members of Congress, Richard Pombo.  Jerry was one of the first DFA Grassroots All-Stars and thousands of volunteers, including so many of you, came together for his campaign and achieved what many said was impossible – sending a seven-term committee Chairman packing.

Click here to give and keep this map-changer working for change.

Since that ground shaking election,  

Jerry has gone on to put his experience in renewable energy to work.  As the only member of Congress that’s also a former wind energy engineer, his leadership in the fight against global warming is invaluable.  

Now, Jerry’s facing a challenge from David Harmer, a corporate lawyer who spent his career defending Wall Street and big corporations.  After the taxpayers bailed out his Wall Street bank, Harmer pocketed a six-figure bonus and payout and then had the audacity to file for unemployment.  And as if that wasn’t enough, he wants to dismantle the Department of Energy, close public schools and outsource good American jobs.

Now he’s airing an ad attacking Jerry for standing up for change.  He’s also claiming to be a “constitutional attorney” who spent his career “protecting taxpayers” when in reality he was a corporate lawyer who helped big Wall Street corporations rip off California families.

We must keep Jerry working for change.  Click here to give $10, $40, anything you can, today.

What we’re working for isn’t just about one campaign – it’s about a movement.  To succeed, we must all stand up and keep working toward the brighter future.

I know I can count on you.

-Howard

I wonder what is going on in CA-11 (my own district).  After surprising the world and beating Richard Pombo in 2006, and then consolidating his position in the district in 2008, Jerry McNerney now finds himself with no less than 7 opponents (according to Vorderbrueggen)  for the 2010 election.

Does a declining party really think that they can win this one back, or is it just the fact that they are still in shock over Pombo’s loss… and our gain?

I would guess that McNerney would love to see a Republican cat fight chewing up contributions while he meets quarterly fund-raising goals with regularity.

I sent the following to Jerry McNerney tonight:

Jerry,

I have supported you for a long time, writing newspaper columns calling for voting Pombo out and you in both in 2004 and 2006.  Now, I need to tell you what has to happen for you to continue getting my support.

To begin with, you know and I know that climate change changes everything.  There is nothing more important than dealing with this.

If you want to cut health care costs, you must deal with climate change before tropical diseases like malaria invade the US and valley fever become even more wide spread.  The latter only killed 200 last year.

If you want to fix the economy, you must deal with climate change as the costs of trying to mitigate its effects later will devastate our country’s economy.  The entire Obama economic plan depends on returning to an era of growth the help pay off the debts that we are incurring now.  The effects of climate change may be that such growth never occurs just at the time that we need to be building Netherlands style dikes to protect half of your district from flooding.

Neither Waxman – Markey nor Kerry – Boxer will really achieve their alleged goals.  Those who cheated on mortgage back equities will cheat on trading pollution credits.  Neither bill really takes on coal.  They still talk of the mythological clean coal.  Duke Energy has pulled out of the Clean Coal Coalition and Jim Rogers, it’s CEO, says this about carbon capture and sequestration:

> He argued that it’s unlikely that the United States will be able to develop and bring to scale carbon-capture-and-storage – often called “clean coal” technology. “I think there’s no way we can scale in this country,” he said. “It’s more likely that China will develop and bring CCS to scale. I’d like to be China for a day so we can get CCS done. They’re more likely to get it scaled and deployed than we are. We’re going to be buying their technology.” (Source: Washington Independent)

I expect to hear you telling the truth about where we are headed and to see you working for much stronger legislation than we currently see.  The alternative is to work for someone else who will promise to get this job done, no matter what party they are from.

Wes Rolley  

SB14, which would require utilities to receive 33% of their energy from renewable sources by 2020, passed the state Senate today.  This would be a more stringent standard than the federal bill introduced today by Henry Waxman, which called for 25% from renewables by 2025.  So this is a very aggressive standard that was championed by Darrell Steinberg.

Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg (D-Sacramento) said the bill, which now goes to the Assembly, would help pave the way to a more environmental friendly future.

“The green economy is the economy of the future,” Steinberg said. “The environment and the economy go together.”

Mod Squadder and corporate-friendly Sen. Rod Wright, along with Lou Correa, voted no.  For Wright, who said he is “concerned that this bill is moving too fast,” the vote is particularly inexcusable, as his district is witness to the ravages of greenhouse gas-emitted pollution.  The final vote was 21 aye, 16 no.  Tony Strickland, who pretended to be an environmentalist during his campaign, predictably took a walk on the vote.  What a coward.

Capitol Weekly has more.  This is a big win for Sen. Steinberg, and while the bill is certain to be amended (the “cap and trade” style appearance of “renewable energy credits” that utilities can pass to one another to get inside the 33% standard seems ripe for gaming the system), a strong claim on a very progressive priority gives us hope that progressives won’t be stiffed for this entire session.

In a related development, Rep. Jerry McNerney introduced three very good energy bills at the federal level, including the Smart Grid Advancement Act, which would develop a smart electrical grid that could help reduce energy use during peak times, the Vehicles for the Future Act, which would build out the electrical infrastructure for plug-in hybrids and EVs, and the GREEN Act, which would provide $100 million in grants for developing career and technical training in green jobs.  The three bills are explained here.

I’ve been talking a lot about Stay for Change. Well, I’ve got a chance now to put my time, gas, and energy where my mouth is. The CDP’s Rural Caucus and Take Back Red California are putting together a great event in Stockton (1825 Pacific) on Sunday morning at 10AM.

Assembly Majority Whip Fiona Ma will be there to rally the ‘roots, joining several other local elected officials. Oh, and me! Come and say hi!

Once we hear some good speechifying, we’ll break off to to do some work for Calitics favorite Alyson Huber as well as Lois Wolk (for whom I do some work) and Jerry McNerney. Details:

What: Blue Wave Action event

Who: CDP Rural Caucus, Take Back Red California, Asm. Fiona Ma, Brian Leubitz (That’s me) and tons of fun people…plus you!

When: Sunday, October 26, 10AM

Where: Stockton DCCC, 1825 Pacific

Why: Because California needs you to build a better, more responsible budget.

More information: Cool JPG with info

Come on out to Stockton! I’ll see you there.

Some news for your weekend:

• A KPIX poll shows Jerry McNerney cruising in CA-11, up 52-41 over Dean Andal.  What a golden boy.  The D-Trip needs to bug out of this race and put the resources where they’re needed, like CA-03, CA-46, CA-50 and CA-26.

• Alyson Huber received the endorsement of the Sacramento Bee in her AD-10 race.  In other newspaper endorsements, the LA Times went with some guy named Barack Obama for President.  This is their first endorsement in a general election in 30 years.

• The OC toll road agency, which has been pushing the San Onofre State Beach road for years because it would provide such an economic boost, now wants a billion dollar federal bailout because commuters are using their roads less.  Roads are costly and no longer profitable.  Transit, yes; more roads, no.

• Here’s an interesting read from Amanda Marcotte on Prop. 4 and the new rhetoric taken up by the anti-choice forces.

• A reminder: Jim Dean will be in Southern California Sunday appearing with the campaigns of Debbie Cook (CA-46) and Bill Hedrick (CA-44).  

8:30 AM: Breakfast fundraiser for Debbie Cook for Congress, $25. At the International Association of Machinists Union Hall, 5402 Bolsa Avenue, Huntington Beach, California 92649.

10 AM: Precinct walking and rally also at the International Association of Machinists Union Hall.  For more info, call the Cook campaign at 714-842-6358.

6 PM: Fundraiser for Bill Hedrick with Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez, $75.  At the Historic El Adobe de Capistrano Restaurant, 31891 Camino Capistrano, San Juan Capistrano, CA 92675. Please RSVP to Karen Hinks at 714-848-9395 or khinks-at-verizon-dot-net.

UPDATE by Brian: one more for you. Lane Hudson has an open letter to DiFi on HuffPo challenging her to campaign against Prop 8 in the context of the upcoming Harvey Milk movie. Check it out.