Politics

Etheridge Concedes: Still Counting in Five House Races

By Chris Good
Saved Stories

North Carolina Democrat Bob Etheridge is conceding his House race, National Journal's Tim Sahd reports. Republican Renee Ellmers, consequently, will enter the House.

This leaves only five House races yet to be decided, with one recount underway and absentee ballots being counted in the other four. This gives Republicans a total of 61 seats gained in the 2010 midterms so far.

To recap the remaining action, from a post on Wednesday:

  • California's 11th District: Rep. Jerry McNerney (D) leads David Harmer (R) by 1,757 votes
  • California's 20th District: Rep. Jim Costa (D) leads Andy Vidak (R) by 1,428 votes
  • New York's 1st District: Randy Altschuler (R) leads Rep. Tim Bishop (D) by 383 votes. Absentee ballots are being counted, and Bishop's team has promised to request a recount after a recanvass of electronic voting machines swung the election-night results by 4,000, giving Altschuler the lead.
  • New York's 25th District: Ann Marie Buerkle (R) leads Rep. Dan Maffei (D) by 824 votes. After leading by 729 on election night, Buerkle has added to her lead as absentee ballots have been tallied.
  • Texas's 27th District: Blake Farenthold (R) leads Rep. Solomon Ortiz (D) by 797 votes. A recount is now underway, at Ortiz's request

To understand a big part of why Etheridge lost (at least, it seems safe to assume) watch this video, in which Etheridge manhandles a "student videographer," who, it has since been revealed, was working for the Republican Party: