Thank you very much for all of your help with my campaign for Congress. As you may know, I trail my opponent, Scott Peters by 685 votes.

There are 475,000 ballots that still need to be counted in the county. This race is far from over.

The next release of numbers will take place today, November 8th at 5:00 pm and the Registrar of Voters will release numbers every business day thereafter until December 4th.

Again, thank you for your help and we will keep you posted.

1. Patricia Madden says:

   November 8, 2012 at 4:00 pm

   Maybe you should have hired Tom Shepard instead of Revolvis.
2. Al says:

   November 8, 2012 at 6:47 pm

   Maybe… you should have been a better candidate?
3. Thor's Assistant says:

   November 8, 2012 at 10:36 pm

   Commenters are reminded to keep the discussion about issues and policies, not personalities. Why resort to name calling, when you can make a cogent argument as to why a politico is wrong about an issue, or even every issue? You can even be harshly critical of someone’s politics or campaign strategy on this blog, without getting personal, so why not? We know why not. Because for an asshat, it is much simpler to name call than to formulate a solid point. Although we would never call a commenter an asshat, even if they are one, as that would be a violation of our rules.

   Oh, this is not in reference to the posted comments above, this is in reference to the comment we banned by the person that some may think is an asshat. Not us, of course.
4. TWM says:

   November 8, 2012 at 11:13 pm

   While the criticism is noted, we should note that most of these ballots are late PAV voters.

   While many of those votes may typically go to a D below the 8, that is not the case north of it.

   This race is still very much alive and Peters shouldn’t be talking about going to freshman orientation yet.

   This isn’t over by a long shot.
5. D. Morton says:

   November 9, 2012 at 7:37 am

   After reading this morning’s comments on several threads, I have decided that I need to meet this Patricia Madden person.
6. Richard Rider, Chairman, San Diego Tax Fighters says:

   November 9, 2012 at 8:33 am

   IF Peters wins, he won’t have the Obama effect to reelect him in 2014. Considering how close this race is, a good 2014 GOP candidate can and SHOULD unseat Peters after only one 2-year term. Even Bilbray can probably beat him then.

   Something to look forward to.

   You heard it here first!
7. Jack says:

   November 9, 2012 at 8:41 am

   I hope its over…. Career politicians like yourself are one of the biggest problems in this country. If you want to do something good for the country get a bill passed to remove the huge pensions and other extreme benefits for Congress. Being elected should be seen as doing a service to your country. Its should note be a profession and given such unequal benefits to private sector. If you were a true Republican you would understand and do something positive. Another good reason for term limits. Two terms Max and your out.
8. Richard Rider, Chairman, San Diego Tax Fighters says:

   November 9, 2012 at 11:35 am

   Jack, you mention a common misconception. The Congressional pension is quite lucrative from a private sector viewpoint, but as a percent of salary, a Congressional DB pension is not as good as 90+% of CA state and local employees — our California aristocracy.
9. Jack says:

   November 9, 2012 at 10:12 pm

   They all need to be reformed and Richard…. also look at their other benefits. Look at the history of wealth building from just being a congressman. Duke was not alone. Many do the same and thats why so many people know Congress is ineffective and has zero integrity.
10. Dave Rice says:

    November 10, 2012 at 12:14 am

    Richard – you bring up an interesting (to me) question – if Congressional pensions pay much better than someone in the private sector might expect, but much less than someone in the public sector might also proportionally expect, what does that say about the current state of affairs?

    I see three options:

    1. Private sector employees receive an adequate retirement benefit, elected officials receive an excessive benefit, and public laborers are obscenely overpaid in retirement.

    2. Non-government workers receive inadequate retirement benefits, elected officials receive fair compensation for their service in retirement, and lower-level public employees are compensated at a level somewhat greater than they deserve.

    3. Those who work in the private sector should expect to labor until they die unless they are willing (or forced) to accept a poverty-level existence, elected officials should expect no financial gain from their positions, and the “lavish” retirement benefits public laborers reap will be solely sufficient to sustain them until their expiration.

    From your comment that Congressional pensions are better than private wages but not as attractive as public sector labor (granted, I’m dismissing terms of service in this argument), it appears one of these three would be the case. Of course, I allow that there may be outliers that I’m missing, and I look forward to a response that hopefully points out what I’ve overlooked.
11. Richard Rider says:

    November 10, 2012 at 12:46 pm

    Dave, you’ve limited the options to what is commonly called a “false choice.” In this case, only three choices.

    There’s a fourth choice — no government worker pensions at all. It’s not as absurd as it sounds — our CA state politicians get no pension except social security. And the same is true for many private sector workers. You may not agree with the option, but it is viable, if people want government jobs bad enough that they are willing to forego retirement benefits.

    And another choice is just 401k type plans for govt workers. No defined benefit (DB) plans. And modest 401k plans at that.

    Still another option is PARITY — government retirement benefits should roughly equal the same as average private sector benefits.

    Your limited options are also based on the false (unstated) assumption that one’s pension/401k plan ALONE should/would fund most or all of one’s retirement. Of course, those of us in the private sector understand this doesn’t work, so the prudent among us make investments and fund our personal IRA’s to help us in retirement.

    But back to our federal legislators. Many people wrongly assume that Congressional benefit (DB) pensions are incredibly lavish — often based on bogus email chain letters that continue to tour the Internet.

    The Congressional pensions are clearly excessive, as are all govt DB pensions. But Congressional pensions are not as good as what MOST state and local government employees receive, relative to their salaries.

    My point is simply that our far bigger problem is the millions of government employees who usually have even BETTER pensions than Congress critters.

    Just to be clear — Congress should not have ANY DB pension — at best they should have a modest 401k plan. And BTW, they DO pay into and receive Social Security.

    BOTTOM LINE: Govt should not be in the business of guaranteeing retirement benefits or amounts — public OR private. EVERY time it does this, unfunded (and unsustainable) liabilities arise, and ultimately only bad options remain for society.