Tracy Emblem

UPDATE: The San Diego Union-Tribune reports that Tracy Emblem has conceded the June 8 election and has endorsed Francine Busby. The County Registrar of Voters certified the results this week, the newspaper reports, showing Busby received 66 percent of the votes to Emblem’s 34 percent in the Democratic primary.

Emblem posted a message to her Twitter ‘page’ that she is supporting Busby “and will help in the 2010 General.”

Continue reading to see a June 10 post after Emblem declined to concede until the results were certified.

Read the full story in The San Diego Union-Tribune.

Original post from June 10, 2010:

In an email message distributed to supporters June 10, Tracy Emblem declined to concede Tuesday’s primary to Francine Busby, her opponent for the 50th Congressional District Democratic nomination to oppose incumbent Brian Bilbray. “There still are 160,000 absentee ballots waiting to be counted and until the final tally I am not making any official endorsements, concessions or statements,” Emblem wrote.

Emblem thanked her supporters, and expressed frustration at the apparent election result. “2 to 1 results favoring my Democratic opponent from every part of the district didn’t make sense when our internal polling data showed our targeted precincts supporting me 3 to 1, she said. “And 10,000 votes did not make sense with more than 20 labor unions endorsing my candidacy who have voters living in the 50th.”

The complete statement:

Dear Friends,

Thank you so much for your commitment to my campaign for United States Congress. Your hard work and efforts brought neighbors together, shed light on important issues, and empowered people in our community to further progress through grassroots work and determination.

We worked every day to build coalitions and put in the sweat equity. We knew that a weakened economy meant that we would have to run a financially lean campaign. And when the analysts expected a low turnout in the 2010 mid-term primaries, we listened. We set our sights on 150 targeted precincts in the 50th.

With the help of committed volunteers and supporters like you, we made over 65,000 live calls into the district talking with voters about issues important to our community. We also knocked on doors and our student volunteers logged in more than 2000 hours of visibility at community events and on busy intersections and freeway overpasses during rush hour in the final days leading up to June 8th Democratic Primary.

I’m sure like me, you are frustrated and feeling the pain of Tuesday night’s election results. The returns were disappointing because they were inconsistent with the feedback we received from our field voter contact communications. 2 to 1 results favoring my Democratic opponent from every part of the district didn’t make sense when our internal polling data showed our targeted precincts supporting me 3 to 1. And 10,000 votes did not make sense with more than 20 labor unions endorsing my candidacy who have voters living in the 50th.

We ran a vigorous campaign. There still are 160,000 absentee ballots waiting to be counted and until the final tally I am not making any official endorsements, concessions or statements.

The campaign and I would like to personally THANK each and every one of you for your support.

Yours very truly,

Tracy Emblem