Painfully close, but not close enough:
New York Republican Randy Altschuler has conceded to Democratic Rep. Tim Bishop, bringing the final undecided House race of the 2010 election cycle to a close.
The final margin was less than 300 votes. I’d blogged Monday about suspicions of Democrat vote shenanigans. Sam Foster at Left Coast Rebel has Altschuler’s official statement:
Randy Altschuler, Republican/Conservative candidate, this morning conceded the hard-fought race for New York’s 1st Congressional District seat. With approximately 977 absentee ballots left to be counted, unofficial numbers showed four-term Democrat incumbent Congressman Tim Bishop with a 263 vote lead over Altschuler, with a total of more than 194,000 votes cast. The 1st Congressional District was the last undecided House seat in the nation.
Additionally, the Altschuler campaign dropped its legal challenges to the remaining uncounted absentee ballots. This will allow the Suffolk County Board of Elections to count the remaining ballots. While the Altschuler campaign has uncovered numerous instances of absentee ballots that may have been unlawfully cast, the campaign is confident that the proper authorities will take the appropriate action concerning them and that their number is too small to alter the outcome of the election.
Randy Altschuler said, “After consulting with my family and campaign staff, I am ending my campaign and offering congratulations to Congressman Tim Bishop on his victory.
As LCR notes, this last decision finalizes the GOP’s gain in the mid-term elections at 63 House seats, providing incoming Speaker John Boehner with a 242-seat majority (compared to 193 for Democrats).
