Not in the literal sense, of course.
More like in this sense.
Sharp distinctions
The race pits two men of sharply different political philosophies: McNerney calls himself a pragmatist who brings federal funds back to his district; Harmer calls himself a "fan of freedom" whose priority is cutting the federal deficit.
snip
McNerney has a 3-to-1 cash advantage and boasts a "killer" ground operation.
Yesterday, I got a call from Rep. Jerry McNerney thanking me for my work helping to keep him in office. So I figured it's time to celebrate & finish this diary that's been in draft for weeks.
Jump below for a review of 1 of the closest races in the nation, and its happy ending.
Nail-biting has now gone on for over 3 weeks in the final 2 remaining undecided (uncalled) races in the nation. In this PVI R+1 district, a 2-term Democrat won a 3rd term vs a right-wing ideologue who espouses the fringiest of the extreme wingnut fringe, Republican Teahadist David Harmer.
Today's numbers are encouraging once again:
The 2,474 vote lead is the largest margin for McNerney since the polls closed on Election Night three weeks ago.
McNerney, a Pleasanton resident, also leads Harmer, a San Ramon resident, 48 percent to 46.9 percent. The 1.1 percent gap is the first time McNerney has lead by more than a percentage point.
But it hardly mattered; Jerry's camp declared victory over a week ago:
http://www.jerrymcnerney.org/...
MCNERNEY WINS RE-ELECTION IN CALIFORNIA’S 11th CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT
Dublin, CA – Today, with nearly all the votes tallied in California’s 11th Congressional District, Congressman Jerry McNerney has won re-election
Tomorrow, San Joaquin's final numbers will most likely be in, which potentially means AP calls the race finally. Whether Harmer concedes is another story.
Harmer has not conceded the defeat, and plans to wait until all remaining outstanding ballots are counted.
snip
David Harmer has already started raising money for a possible recount.
Yeah, good luck with that, teabaggers. They can throw their money into a recount, but anyone who can do the math knows it is mere folly. David Harmer is now a 3-time Congressional loser. If the tea-addled were smart (yeah, a big if), they'd cut their losses on this one and move on.
They were valiant in their efforts here, no matter how bizarre their efforts may have been.
"I really don't mind standing alone," the Discovery Bay resident said, stating the chance to confront government officials who fail to properly represent the will of the people was too important to pass up.
We gotta take a moment to enjoy the sweet taste of victory here, a it was all-too rare elsewhere around the country in the past election.
Let's see what the local teabaggers were saying...
These signs were posted in cattle-grazing hills alongside I-680, one of the busiest roads in the district. The shots I took don't show how huge the signs are. Anyone driving from northeast from San Jose couldn't miss them for the past year.
"We'll Remember in November"
heh
We will remind them of their EPIC failure in December and beyond.
Note: They were all torn down within a couple days of the election.
Heh heh
You can't see all the names clearly (I was driving by while I snapped the pic), but each and every name listed LOST.
Sorta like the losers listed on this Goposaur's lawn (git off his lawn!)
The sign after Carly Failorina is Meg Witless.
But the point of this post is not merely to bask in the glory of these wins or to merely laugh at the failtastic local teabaggers (although that is a bonus), but to point out how we managed to win here when so many others came up short.
When Jerry called me, he made it clear that is was indeed the ground game (of which I was a part) that made the difference. When your margin of victory is less than just over 1%, it's a fair wager that the feet on the ground made a huge difference (and that the GOP will blame ACORN/voter fraud).
In the face of daunting odds (and unseasonably sweltering heat waves), I took to the streets nearly every day this fall to knock on doors for Jerry. More than that, I made sure that the office would allocate to me the most conservative turfs they had, and I didn't speak to a single Democratic door until the GOTV week just days before the election.
That's right, I spoke only to Republicans (and independents).
I really believe in the face-to-face world of politics.
Nate Silver agrees:
For every twelve voters who you talk to at their doors, one voter goes and votes who would not otherwise have voted.
Getting people on our side to the polls is a huge task and it is important. But talking to likely voters who are likely to vote for the other guy is a worthy goal too. I would like to think that in the months of knocking on thousands of doors (and actually talking to thousands of people), that maybe 100-200 of them changed their mind about who they would vote for. I'm trying to be humble here; the number could be much higher. You have much better odds of getting someone's ear for a moment in person that you do by phone. I am one persistent bugger on turf.
Now if you do the math, this means that had these people not switched, the race could have gone the other way. Instead of gnashing my teeth as the outlook bleakened, I kept marching day after day, even if it meant knocking during playoff games as the local team went on to win the World Series.
The exercise (more figuratively here) was good for me as well in that helped me look in the eye of many Republicans and speak to their humanity. More registered Republicans than you might guess gave me the time of day, and actually heard some of the arguments I presented. It is good for someone like me to acknowledge that there is a shred of decency in these folks, because all too often I struggle to see it.
All's well that ends well...
This victory tastes especially sweet to me because along with some of McNerney's people, I'd worked on another campaign 2 years ago with different, heartbreaking results. And seeing how this election went, it is a safe bet that Charlie Brown would have been pummeled this year had he been the incumbent in that red ass district.
Sure, the polling in this race looked much better the whole way than CA-04 did in 2008. In fact, in the weeks before the election, we had an internal poll that showed us up by double-digits. It helped to keep me confident, but I didn't rest on my laurels. The doom & gloom in the press made me realize how important this seat would be. I'd hoped it would "reserve the color orange for this website, not the Speaker of the House." But alas, Citizens United, ignorant electorate, yadda yadda.
I am reminded of my first rescued diary here that focused on doing the work instead of gnashing teeth and despairing. When things look tough, we cannot curl up into the fetal position and weep. Our best leaders are those who trudge on and continue to inspire us. We should heed their words about gaining strength despite and as a reult of our setbacks.
Far too many of us have the urge to give up on the good guys when it looks like they are losing, flailing, and the like. The funny thing is that some of the same people who are prone to hopelessness are the very same who often implore the Dems to grow a spine and the like.
Sure, this is a story of but one district we won in a year when we lost a lot more. But more specifically, it is about the efforts of one canvasser who kept marching, kept talking to the other side every day, and in the end, got a call from the Congressman he helped re-elect.
I hope it serves as a little inspiration to those who have read this parable, and use it as fodder to fight your ass off for whatever candidate you support or cause you champion in the coming years.