And that is certainly true of this election.  The liberal wave that swept over America last month lapped at the edges of this district, but it literally was in the 4th Congressional district of California where that wave was turned back.

When the final votes were counted, it was the people of the 4th Congressional District who made the decision to stand by our traditional American principles of individual freedom and limited government, and it will be my distinct honor to carry that message to the 111th Congress of the United States.

The long election count has required that we compress the transition period into just a few weeks.  I had the opportunity to meet with John Doolittle in Washington the week before last.  I want to thank him and his staff for their extraordinary cooperation in making this a smooth transition.

I want again to congratulate Charlie Brown and his supporters on waging one of the most hard-fought campaigns I have ever faced.  As I said last Wednesday, there can be no doubt of the sincerity of their views or the dedication with which they pursued them.  No one knows better than I do how difficult it is to lose a close race, and I hope it is a consolation for them to know that they made a truly superb effort.

I’ve asked my wife, Lori, to join us for this press conference.  She is the one who kept our family going during a brutal primary and general election.  At least I got to fight back – she had to take it and then have to put up with me when I got home each night.

And I want to thank all those who made this victory possible – those who so selflessly donated so much of their time; those who so generously contributed the resources to get our message out; and our campaign staff who worked impossibly long and difficult hours.  It is the close elections in which EVERY effort becomes decisive – and it is those elections that make a candidate acutely aware of the trust and confidence that has been placed in his hands.  It is a lot to live up to, and I will do everything in my power to be worthy of it.

But most of all I want to thank the voters of the 4th Congressional District who have stood with me in this election.  Thank you for the stand that you have taken.

You have been heard around the country: that there are many communities throughout our nation where Americans will NOT abandon the founding principles of our nation.  And it is from these communities that we will now begin the fight in Congress to restore them as the foundation of our national policy.

I am honored – deeply honored – to have your charter to deliver this message to the Congress of the United States – and I will do everything within my power to see that your voices are heard and that our freedoms are restored.

The lead of 1,775 votes is a margin of victory that puts us well outside the possibility of a recount changing the outcome.  To put it in perspective, it is more than twice the margin by which I lost the race for State Controller in 2002.

The numbers came in a little late to hold a press conference today but I expect to have a formal statement at our Congressional transition office in Roseville on Monday.

In the meantime, I can only reflect on the fact that I will never be able adequately to thank all those who so selflessly volunteered their time and resources to bring us to this moment.  It is appropriate that the tally should be completed on the eve of Thanksgiving Day – it is a reminder of how much I owe to all those who rallied to the cause and to the voters of the fourth Congressional District.  I am well aware of the trust that has been placed in me and I will do everything I can to be worthy of it.

I want also to congratulate Charlie Brown and his supporters on waging one of the most hard-fought campaigns I have ever faced.  There can be no doubt of the sincerity of their views or the dedication with which they pursued them.  I know from personal experience how difficult it is to lose a close race, and I hope it is a consolation for them to know that they made a truly superb effort.

I will have much more to say formally on Monday, but for now please accept my sincere thanks for all of the sacrifices that have been made on behalf of my candidacy.

We are told to expect the final tallies from the counties still outstanding to be announced by early next week, and I expect to be making a formal statement then.  For now, I think we can safely say that the fat lady is singing – and she’s singing our song.

My sincere thanks to the hundreds of volunteers and donors whose time and resources made it possible to assure the fairness and accuracy of this vote.  I will have more to say next week, but for now the most appropriate – though completely inadequate – words I can offer are THANK YOU.

Butte and Placer counties comprise 23,000 of those ballots and are expected to release their numbers in a single batch when they complete their full counts later this week or early next.  In short, the fat lady hasn’t begun singing yet, but she’s on stage and appears to be wearing a McClintock button.

We expect final Nevada County numbers to come in by the middle of this week. Once they have been reported, our lead should steadily grow as the remaining ballots from Placer, Sacramento, Butte and El Dorado counties are tallied.

As of tonight, our lead has narrowed to 691 out of 338,307 ballots counted, or 0.20 percent.  But there are only 1,792 ballots left to be counted in Nevada County, and Nevada County is the only county remaining that Brown carried.  Meanwhile, there are still 29,500 unprocessed ballots from counties that we are carrying. After the final Nevada county votes are reported, our lead should steadily increase from there.

In a nutshell, we are currently receiving 50.1 percent of the vote and need 48.9 percent of the remaining votes.  Of the counties still outstanding, we are carrying Butte county with 52.2 percent; El Dorado by 50.81; Placer by 50.72 and Sacramento by 53.29.  Indeed, we carried 64.75 percent of today’s batch from Sacramento and 56.21 percent of the batch from El Dorado.

Again, my sincere thanks to the volunteers and donors who have worked so hard to assure a fair and accurate count.

We lost 468 votes from Nevada County today while gaining 80 from Sacramento County and 353 from El Dorado County for a net loss of 35.  We continue to run stronger in the late vote than the election day vote in ALL counties.   We estimate that there are now fewer than 5,000 ballots remaining to be counted in counties that Brown carried and 29,000 remaining to be counted in counties that we carried.

Many thanks once again to all those who have volunteered their time to serve as election observers and who have contributed to support our legal team.  The growing sense of confidence in the outcome of this count is directly because of your help.

Nevada County reported 1,950 additional votes today, of which we received 45.79 percent – well above the 42.52 we had on Election Day.  This loss was more than offset when Sacramento County reported 491 additional ballots counted, of which we received 54.17 percent of the vote (up from 53.10 on election day); and El Dorado County processed an additional 5,573 ballots, of which we received 52.79 percent (up from 50.34 on election day).

These results comport with our field observations that the bulk of the uncounted votes are from our stronghold precincts.

We estimate that there are still 8,600 ballots from counties where Brown has the lead and 33,900 ballots from counties where I have the lead yet to be counted.

We expect the bulk of Nevada County’s votes to be reported tomorrow, where we could lose as many as 1,500 votes.  Nevertheless, we are seeing better performance with the late absentees than we saw on election night in every county – including Nevada – and if that keeps up, our numbers should bounce back fairly rapidly.  Based on the precincts yet to be counted, chances are very good that our lead should start widening from our low point when Nevada comes in.  If we stay out of negative territory with that vote, victory should be within sight.

My sincere thanks to everyone who has stepped forward to help.  Stay tuned for tomorrow…

Despite the promising trend, our lead is still razor-thin and the race could still flip on us.  I’m told that the bulk of the absentee ballots should be finished by the end of the week and at that point, we should have a clearer picture.

I want again to thank all the volunteer observers and our donors who have supported our legal team to assure that this count is fair and accurate.  We also are blessed with highly professional election divisions in the nine counties that comprise the district.