SANTA BARBARA - In the race for the newly re-drawn 24th Congressional District, Republican challenger Abel Maldonado has conceded defeat to incumbent Democrat Lois Capps.
With the vote counting far from over Tuesday night, seven-term incumbent Democrat Lois Capps and her supporters were in a celebratory mood at the election night returns party at the El Paseo Restaurant in downtown Santa Barbara.
Arriving to throngs of cheering supporters and fellow Democratic candidates, Capps pumped her fists and danced on stage before thanking a small army of volunteers that helped propel her over Republican challenger Abel Maldonado.
Capps said she had to convince a large, new constituency in the re-districted 24th district that she deserved to return to Washington for her eighth term in office in what some political observers called the political race of her life.
"This new district, a third of the voters or constituents haven't been represented by me in the past", Capps said, "so it was very tough, its been a challenging race."
Challenger Maldonado, the former California Lieutenant Governor, State Senator and Assemblyman and Santa Maria Mayor and City Councilman said he tried to convey a plain and simple message to voters.
"Growing this economy, putting more certainty for small family business owners, making sure there is more confidence in our government, and fixing Washington because Washington is broken", Maldonado said, "in order to change Washington you have to change the people that are in Washington."
Both candidates and their respective political parties spent more than $3 million on TV advertising alone in a campaign that included personal attacks against each other over unpaid or unreported income taxes and claims of possible ethics violations.
"There's no secret my family was personally attacked during the whole time", Maldonado said, "I took a different tactic, I stayed on message, I talked about China, I talked about jobs going overseas, I talked about high taxes and the tremendous debt we're saddling our children with."
Maldonado conceded defeat in this statement released later Tuesday night:
"A short while ago, I spoke with Rep. Lois Capps, and offered her my congratulations on her victory tonight. For anyone today who supported my campaign, I am honored and grateful for your support, not just today, but throughout my life in public service. "
"I want to thank my family for all of their love and support and I look forward to being able to move beyond the demands of a campaign to spend more time with them. A campaign like this would not have been possible without the hard work of volunteers taking time out of their lives to make phone calls and walk precincts and I am so thankful to all of you who have given this campaign - your campaign - so much. I have been blessed to have a talented and dedicated team that has made this campaign the focal point of their lives for the last five months. It wasn't easy, but nothing ever worth fighting for ever is and even though the outcome wasn't the one we had hoped for, this was a campaign we all can be proud of."
For her part, Lois Capps said she relied on her record of achievement over the part 14 years of service representing the Central Coast in Washington.
"I wanted to use that as a strength", Capps said, "that I've had experience, that people know me, my record on the Central Coast is an open book."
