In a somewhat surprising turnabout, with nearly all of the provisional and mail-in ballots now counted after election night, incumbent Scott Peters was ahead to stay by more than 5,400 votes in the hotly contested 52nd Congressional District race.
\nCarl DeMaio, Democrat Peters\u2019 Republican challenger, conceded defeat in the razor-thin vote on Nov. 9, formally ending one of the country\u2019s most sought-after congressional races.
\n“I am honored the constituents of California\u2019s 52nd Congressional District chose to send me back for another two years,” said Peters who thanked his family and wife Lynn, his campaign team and hundreds of volunteers who Peters said “worked nonstop to remind voters in every corner of the district about the importance of this election.”
\nPeters also thanked DeMaio for “his commitment to public service and government reform. While we disagreed on many issues, I congratulate him on running a tenacious, aggressive and tough campaign.”
\nThe re-elected Congressman pledged to “continue on the path I forged in 2012, working with members of both parties to break the gridlock and get things done for my district and the nation.
\nThe district includes La Jolla and Carmel Valley.
\n“My campaign moved beyond the false choices that dominate the current dialogue in Washington and answered the voters\u2019 demand for practical, centrist solutions,” Peters said. “The voters want real leadership on issues like protecting a woman\u2019s right to choose, addressing climate change, providing fair wages and safe working conditions and giving students the opportunity to afford a college education.”
\nPeters said voters also want a strong commitment to national defense and a willingness to work with the business community in a partnership for job creation and economic expansion.
\n“In San Diego,” he said, “that means renewed investments in basic infrastructure \u2013 our roads and bridges \u2013 and in emerging sciences and technologies like green energy, high tech and biotech and other innovative businesses that create good jobs.”
\nThe campaign for the 52nd District race topped $10 million in spending by both candidates.
\nMichael Vu, San Diego\u2019s registrar of voters, said DeMaio was up by 752 votes at the end of election night, with some 188,000 provisional and mail-in ballots yet to be counted. But the registrar said that situation gradually turned as more ballots were counted.
\n“With the update on Thursday of last week [Nov. 6] with 13,000 ballots added, the vote swung to Peters, who was ahead by 861 votes,” Vu said. “That lead has increased since then, when Peters\u2019 vote, on Friday, increased to 4,771 ahead.”
\nThe no-holds-barred race drew national attention and plenty of support \u2014 especially campaign dollars \u2014 from outside political interests.
\nPeters first claimed the newly created 52nd Congressional District seat in 2012, unseating Republican Brian Bilbray in an election that took several days of counting to decide.
\nNoting “San Diegans are sick of division and dysfunction in Washington,” DeMaio said constituents “want less fighting and more fixing.”
\nIt was a divisive campaign from the start, with incumbent Peters painting himself as an independent bipartisan “problem solver” while attempting to depict his challenger as a “Tea Party extremist.”
\nDeMaio went after Peters\u2019 attacking his eight-year record as a San Diego city councilman. DeMaio blamed him as “part of the fiscal problem” necessitating pension reform and branding him as a “business-as-usual” Washington politician.
\nDuring the race, DeMaio, who is openly gay, had to ward off allegations of sexual misconduct by two former male staffers \u2014 the second of whom went public only a few days before the Nov. 4 election. His campaign office was also vandalized earlier this year.
\nDistrict Attorney Bonnie Dumanis declined to file charges regarding the first instance of alleged sexual harassment or the vandalism. She cited insufficient evidence in each case.
\nDuring his concession speech to Peters, DeMaio described the campaign against Peters as “incredibly painful,” leaving him wary of electoral politics.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In a somewhat surprising turnabout, with nearly all of the provisional and mail-in ballots now counted after election night, incumbent Scott Peters was ahead to stay by more than 5,400 votes in the hotly contested 52nd Congressional District race. Carl DeMaio, Democrat Peters\u2019 Republican challenger, conceded defeat in the razor-thin vote on Nov. 9, formally […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":726,"featured_media":272095,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11560","_seopress_titles_title":"Peters wins 52nd District amid vote shift, tough talk","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11560],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-272094","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-la-jolla-village-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272094","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/726"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=272094"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272094\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/272095"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=272094"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=272094"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=272094"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}