This is a heart-breaker. Via e-mail from Charlie Brown, Democratic candidate in CA-04:

Thanks to the extraordinary work of our local elections officials, I am pleased to report that the high standards of fairness, accuracy, and transparency have been met.  And with the counts and recounts across district four complete, and more than 370,000 votes tallied, the outcome of this election is no longer in question.  Unfortunately, we've come up less than one half of one percent---just under 1,800 votes---short of victory.  

So a short time ago, I called Senator Tom McClintock to congratulate him on a hard fought victory, and to wish him well in Congress.

To you, I can only offer my deepest gratitude-for your generosity of time and resources, and your unwavering energy and encouragement.  Together, we have transformed the 4 th District, and lifted this campaign higher and farther than anyone thought possible.

Charlie's a class act and really has always had an uphill battle in this district, which has a PVI of R+11, especially once Doolittle withdrew from a re-election bid. My uncle who lives there assured me there was no way this seat would go Democratic and Charlie almost proved him wrong.

Dave Dayen at calitics sums the race up:

Charlie fought a very good fight, actually becoming a point person for veteran's issues around the country and leading by example with his Promises Kept Challenge, donating 5% of his campaign contributions to organizations serving veterans and their families.  And he showed through two cycles that the supposedly hopeless 4th District is more than winnable to the right candidate.

What makes this an even more bitter defeat is that this race was our last hope at turning a red seat blue here in CA. Last cycle we defeated Pombo and despite having several solid candidates in bluing districts this cycle and despite having a presidential candidate at the top of the ticket who won 61% of the vote statewide, we were unable to convert a single seat. Ah the ole incumbency protection racket at work. Suffice it to say that for us here in California, Prop 8 isn't the only result inspiring some soul searching and some blame laying. As much as we've accomplished here in the last, really, just 3 years, it's clear how much more work there is still to be done.