Republican Keith Fimian has released a statement conceding defeat in the 11th Congressional District race against Rep. Gerald Connolly (D).

Connolly leads Fimian by 981 votes — or .4 percent of all votes cast — according to the Virginia state board of elections site. That margin entitles Fimian to ask for a recount after state election officials certify the results Nov. 22, but operatives from both parties who monitored the vote-counting process in the week since Election Day said they saw no glaring flaws in the numbers, and no clear path that would enable Fimian to make up the difference in a recount.

This is Fiminan’s second try at the 11th, and while it came close it seems unlikely that he’d be given a third chance at the brass ring. More importantly, though, with a Presidential race coming up in 2012, Connolly will have a much easier path to re-election in 2012 than he did this year. It’ll be at least 2014 before the GOP can put up real challenge, I’m guessing.

• Virginia Turns Just A Little More Red
• Connolly Beats Fimian In Virginia 11
• Connolly Beats Fimian In Virginia 11
• Recount Confirms Perriello Defeated Goode
• Recount Confirms Perriello Defeated Goode

• 17 Congressman Who Deserve Your Thanks
• 17 Congressman Who Deserve Your Thanks
• Recount Confirms Perriello Defeated Goode
• Recount Confirms Perriello Defeated Goode
• Ron Paul Wins In TX-14

• Is It Wrong To Have A Man Crush On Chris Christie ?
• Chris Christie Is The Man With The Fastest Veto Pen In The East
• Christie Opens Six Point Lead In New Jersey
• Christie Opens Six Point Lead In New Jersey
• No Reform School For 6 Year-Old Spork Wiedler

Also, Paul spoke with Wolf Blizter after the speech:

• Final Kentucky Senate Poll: Rand Paul +25
• Rand Paul: “I Have A Message, We’ve Come To Take Our Government Back”
• Rand Paul Wins Kentucky Republican Senate Primary
• Grayson Supporters Ready To Torpedo Rand Paul In November ?
• Rand Paul OTB Roundup

Rep. Gerald E. Connolly (D) was holding on to a thin lead in the race to keep his seat Tuesday night, even as a Republican wave swept three fellow Democratic members of Congress from Virginia out of office.

In a rematch of their 2008 race, Connolly led Oakton businessman Keith Fimian (R) by less than 500 votes with 99 percent of precincts reporting in the 11th Congressional District, which includes most of Fairfax County and a portion of Prince William County. Connolly won by 12 percentage points two years ago and was leading Tuesday by less than 1 percent.

Connolly, a veteran politician who once headed the Fairfax Board of Supervisors, spoke to supporters late Tuesday and made what appeared to be an acceptance speech.

“I hope you will find me worthy. . . and accept my deep gratitude to continue to be able to serve this public for another two years,” he said.

But Fimian did not concede. His campaign released a statement early Wednesday saying, “In an election this close, it is important to take the time to get the result right by seeing the counting and canvassing process through.”

Fairfax elections officials said they had counted all of the votes – including absentee ballots – except for those in two precincts, where a small number of machines malfunctioned. Those votes will be counted Wednesday morning, Registrar Edgardo Cortes said.

Connolly won each of those precincts two years ago by 20 percentage points.

In the 2nd District in Norfolk and Virginia Beach, freshman Rep. Glenn Nye (D) was ousted by auto dealer Scott Rigell (R). In the 5th District in the central part of the state, first-term Rep. Tom Perriello (D) lost to state Sen. Robert Hurt. In the 9th District in southwestern Virginia, veteran Rep. Rick Boucher (D) lost his seat to state House Majority Leader Morgan Griffith (R).

The national momentum that carried Republicans to a projected majority in the House helped the party regain the ground it had lost in Virginia in 2008, when Connolly, Nye and Perriello all picked up GOP-held seats and President Obama became the first Democrat to carry the state since Lyndon Johnson. Some observers said they thought those wins heralded a decisive and lasting shift in Virginia politics. But it seems to have lasted just 24 months.

As of this morning, the official results from the 11th District are as follows:

Connolly — 110,401 votes (49.11%)

Fimian — 109,914 (48.9%)

That’s a 487 vote margin with just under 99% of precincts reporting. Under Virginia law, a recount can only be requested if the the difference between the apparent winning and that apparent losing candidates is 1% or less of the total votes cast for those two candidates. The apparent loser cannot request a recount until after the election is certified. This one could be up in the air for awhile.

Nonetheless, a pickup of at least three Congressional seats, one of which was in Democratic hands for 28 years, is a huge success for the GOP. It’s also a signal to Senator Jim Webb, who is up for re-election in two years, that he could be in for quite a fight if he wants to stay in office.

• Virginia Republicans Pick Fimian, Hurt, Rigell To Head Into November Battle
• Fimian Concedes To Connolly In VA-11
• Connolly Beats Fimian In Virginia 11
• Connolly Beats Fimian In Virginia 11
• Republicans Leading In Three Virginia House Races

I will also be posting occasional posts at Outside The Beltway, although the major wrap-up posts will not be up until tomorrow most likely.

• Movin’ On Up
• Finding My Wisdom Elsewhere
• Finding My Wisdom Elsewhere
• Debating The War On Earmarks
• ObamaCare Whip Count Updates: 48 Hours And Counting

Pollster Scott Rasmussen takes a look at the expected results of tomorrow’s elections and notes that they have a message for Republicans, but not the one they may think:

The reality is that voters in 2010 are doing the same thing they did in 2006 and 2008: They are voting against the party in power.

This is the continuation of a trend that began nearly 20 years ago. In 1992, Bill Clinton was elected president and his party had control of Congress. Before he left office, his party lost control. Then, in 2000, George W. Bush came to power, and his party controlled Congress. But like Mr. Clinton before him, Mr. Bush saw his party lose control.

That’s never happened before in back-to-back administrations. The Obama administration appears poised to make it three in a row. This reflects a fundamental rejection of both political parties.

More precisely, it is a rejection of a bipartisan political elite that’s lost touch with the people they are supposed to serve. Based on our polling, 51% now see Democrats as the party of big government and nearly as many see Republicans as the party of big business. That leaves no party left to represent the American people.

Voters today want hope and change every bit as much as in 2008. But most have come to recognize that if we have to rely on politicians for the change, there is no hope. At the same time, Americans instinctively understand that if we can unleash the collective wisdom and entrepreneurial spirit of the American people, there are no limits to what we can accomplish.

In this environment, it would be wise for all Republicans to remember that their team didn’t win, the other team lost. Heading into 2012, voters will remain ready to vote against the party in power unless they are given a reason not to do so.

Elected politicians also should leave their ideological baggage behind because voters don’t want to be governed from the left, the right, or even the center. They want someone in Washington who understands that the American people want to govern themselves.

Will the Republicans learn that lesson ? If past history is any guide, they won’t and we’ll be doing this all over again in a few years. But, you know, there’s always hope, right ?

• Poll Shows Anti-Incumbent Sentiment At Highest Level Since 1994
• Poll Shows Anti-Incumbent Sentiment At Highest Level Since 1994
• You Know Who To Blame For ObamaCare ? Yep, George W. Bush
• You Know Who To Blame For ObamaCare ? Yep, George W. Bush
• America’s Libertarian Spirit

• Christine O’Donnell: Witchcraft Dabbler
• Christine O’Donnell Thinks She Can Help “Pray Away The Gay”
• Larry “Bud” Melman, RIP
• Larry “Bud” Melman, RIP
• A Quiet Voice For Freedom

We spent most of our time focusing on the Senate races in Florida, Kentucky, Nevada, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Colorado, but the conversation also wandered off into an interesting discussion of the Delaware Senate Race and the political sophistication, or lack thereof, of the Tea Party movement.

You can listen to the podcast (about one hour long) here

• Listen To Me On This Week’s United Liberty Podcast
• Listen To Me On This Week’s United Liberty Podcast
• Tim Kaine: Don’t Know Much About Geography
• Tim Kaine: Don’t Know Much About Geography
• Six Days From Election Day, Rand Paul Is Coasting To Victory

California Republican Tom McClintock isn’t among those who believes that his party has learned their lesson yet:

Speaking at an event last week in Orange County, CA, Rep. Tom McClintock (R-CA) said he expected big gains for his party at this year’s election, but said he worried that Republicans would squander the victory, as they had in the past, by nominating a slew of “bad candidates” and having a lackluster commitment to conservative principles:

The American people are about to give Republicans a second chance that we know we don’t deserve, that we haven’t earned. … The American people have every right, and every reason, to blame a Republican president and a Republican Congress for the mess that confronted the Obama administration on January 20, 2009 — let us be honest be about this.

(…)

McClintock — a tea party favorite with a strong libertarian streak — had particularly hash words for his party’s nominee for governor, former eBay CEO Meg Whitman. Asked about Whitman following his remarks, McClintock suggested she is not loyal to the “principles of the American Founders,” and said he agrees with her Democratic opponent Jerry Brown as much as he agrees with Whitman:

My loyalty is to the principles of the American Founders. My loyalty to the Republican party and to its candidates extends only so far as they are loyal to those principles. And I don’t see that in the current ticket. Two of the people on the Republican ticket were singularly responsible for biggest tax increase by any state in American history. These are Whitman’s handpicked running mates. [...]

I look at all of these things and I realize I agree with her maybe 20 percent of the time. I agree with Jerry Brown about 20 percent of the time. I agree with the libertarians about 80 percent of the time. So I’m not making an endorsement, particularly for that!

Audio:

McClintock is absolutely right, of course. There’s still no reason to believe that the GOP has changed in any appreciable respect, and the extent to which incoming freshman Congressman and Senators will be able to influence the direction of the party is a complete unknown. That is the reason for the wariness about the GOP and the Tea Party that I expressed in my articles on Sunday and yesterday.

Like I said, prove it to me. Until I see evidence to the contrary, I am just going to assume that the GOP’s commitment to limited government is as much of a farce as it was during the Bush years.

• Americans Support Mandatory Patriotism
• Americans Support Mandatory Patriotism
• Perhaps The Republicans Should Listen To People Who Managed To Win
• Perhaps The Republicans Should Listen To People Who Managed To Win
• Former Republican Congressman Says The GOP Is “In Very Deep Trouble”