Sacramento Area Local News

ROSEVILLE (AP) ― Republican state Sen. Tom McClintock declared victory over Democrat Charlie Brown on Monday in their race for a Northern California congressional seat -- one of a handful of unsettled House contests around the country.

"The votes have been counted," McClintock told supporters at his campaign headquarters in a Sacramento suburb with his wife, Lori, by his side. "The election is over."

Brown did not concede defeat, instead saying he would evaluate the results over the next couple days before deciding what to do. He could request a recount but would have to pay for it himself.

McClintock is 1,576 votes ahead of Brown out of 367,510 votes counted, according to the secretary of state's office. Those figures will be updated and finalized as counties certify their votes by Tuesday's deadline, but McClintock's lead appears insurmountable.

"If you stand on principle, you're going to lose some elections along the way. The ones you win, you're not going to win by much," said McClintock, an unyielding conservative who's waged unsuccessful statewide races for lieutenant governor and controller.

He also ran in the 2003 gubernatorial recall election that brought Arnold Schwarzenegger to Sacramento.

Brown, a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel, has five days to request a recount once Tuesday's results are in. He has told supporters that he could pick up votes from some 17,000 ballots that did not record a vote in the 4th Congressional District race.

Many of those ballots were likely "undervotes" in which no vote was cast for the House race. In some cases, voters may have marked the ballot too lightly to be read by the optical scan machines, or the ballot may have been damaged so the machines couldn't read it.

"We remain committed to ensuring a fair and accurate count where every voice is heard," Brown said in a statement.

A McClintock win would keep the seat in Republican hands. He and Brown were vying to replace longtime GOP Rep. John Doolittle, who is retiring after coming under investigation in a Capitol Hill lobbying scandal.

McClintock said the narrowness of the win makes victory all the sweeter, noting that he also has been on the losing end of a razor-thin race. When running for state controller in 2002 McClintock waited almost two weeks to concede defeat to Democrat Steve Westly, who was ahead by just three-tenths of a percentage point.

"I know what it feels like to lose a close election," McClintock said. "It hurts like the dickens."

McClintock said he hadn't spoken with Brown but praised his opponent, who lost a close race against Doolittle in 2006, "for waging one of the hardest-fought campaigns I've ever faced."

Even if Brown does prove the loser, the narrow margin would be remarkable because the district is one of the most conservative in California. Republicans enjoy a 15-point registration advantage over Democrats in the 4th Congressional District, which stretches from Sacramento's suburbs north to Oregon and east to Nevada.

The district looked like a good choice for a McClintock candidacy when he was forced out of his Southern California state Senate seat by California's term-limits law, yet it also brought accusations of carpet-bagging.

McClintock blamed the closeness of the race on an expensive primary campaign against former Republican Rep. Doug Ose and the "liberal tidal wave that swept the country and lapped at the edges of this district."

McClintock is admired by conservatives statewide for his staunch opposition to taxes and growth in government spending. But at times his inflexible stances frustrate even some in his own party. It's a pattern McClintock's likely to recreate in Washington.

McClintock has been strongly critical of the Bush administration for increasing government spending, including the recent bailout and stimulus packages that he said he would have opposed. He also has said he would refuse to bring "earmarks," or special project spending, to his district.

Doolittle himself came to Congress as an opponent of earmarks but ended up with a post on the powerful Appropriations Committee, from which he delivered projects worth millions to the 4th district.

Other unresolved House races are in Virginia, where incumbent GOP Rep. Virgil Goode has requested a recount in his narrow loss to Democrat Tom Perriello in the 5th district. In Ohio, the state Supreme Court will consider how to handle thousands of uncounted provisional ballots in the 15th district race between Republican Steve Stivers and Democrat Mary Jo Kilroy.

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