It took 22 days, but Republican Rosemary Becchi has conceded to Democrat Mikie Sherrill in CD-11.

“I’m very proud of the campaign we’ve run,” Becchi said in a statement issued today that thanked her family, staff, volunteers and voters.

“It was a hard-fought campaign and over 206,000 voters supported our platform, but unfortunately we came up a little short and ultimately lost by 6 percent,” she said.

Sherrill won by almost 30,000 votes in a district that includes parts of Essex, Morris, Passaic and Sussex counties. Sherrill took a comfortable lead on Election Night and held it as more votes were counted.
A key battleground was once reliably-red Morris County, the heart of the district, which Sherrill won by about 8,000 votes. It’s hard to see a Republican prevailing in this district without winning in Morris.
The Becchi campaign last week asked the U.S. Attorney’s Office to review alleged voter irregularities in Essex, which went heavily for Sherrill. That prompted Sherrill’s campaign manager to call Becchi a sore loser.

With feelings apparently still a bit raw, Becchi’s statement avoided the perfunctory congratulations to Sherrill.

Instead, it wished her well and expressed hope that “She has heard the voices of all of the people of the eleventh district and will work to unite our district, state and country.”