Ed Gillespie, Republican Challenger for Senate in Virginia, Concedes

[spanone]

Ed Gillespie, the Republican candidate in Virginia who surprised nearly everyone by running a photo-finish race with Senator Mark R. Warner, conceded on Friday, saying the gap of 16,700 votes was too great to make up in a recount.

The skin-of-his-teeth win for Mr. Warner, thought to be a prohibitive favorite going into Election Day, has been the subject of intense analysis by campaign professionals and political commentators. Among the big questions: why polls badly failed to show the race to be neck-and-neck and why Mr. Warner, a popular former governor who positioned himself as a “radical centrist,’’ did not inspire more support.

Although Mr. Warner declared victory on Tuesday night, the Gillespie campaign said it would await the results of a canvassing of voting precincts to decide whether to request a recount, which it was entitled to if the margin was less than 1 percent.

The state board of elections showed Mr. Gillespie with 48.36 percent to Mr. Warner’s 49.12 percent on Friday. But Mr. Gillespie, a former aide to President George W. Bush and lobbyist making his first run for office, said it would be impossible to bridge the gap.

http://www.nytimes.com/politics/first-draft/2014/11/07/?entry=5334&_php=true&_type=blogs&partner=rss&emc=rss&_r=0

[mahina]

1. That's what we should do, canvas voter precincts.

In Florida. Right now.