Republican David Harmer is down 2,658 votes in his East Bay congressional race against incumbent Dem Jerry McNerney. But Dave told me [Thursday] he ain't quitting ... just yet.

When you lose a race by a 1 percent sliver, he said, you want to make sure you exhaust all your possibilities.

His race was so close, he was asked to participate in freshman orientation for new House members. He went. "I consider a lot of them (other freshman) friends now."

Now, he needs a miracle to be sworn in with them.

"It just seems prudent to review the precinct-level data to make sure there are no anomalies there," Harmer told me. He doesn't expect the anomaly-hunting to last more than a couple of days. His staff is sifting through the data, which it couldn't obtain until the vote count was certified by counties until earlier this week.

"I don't expect to contest the outcome, but given the fact that it was so close and it took so long to determine the outcome, it just seems wise to review," Harmer said.

And then, as befitting a San Ramon resident from the middle of youth soccer nirvana, a youth soccer analogy:

"During my soccer coaching career," Harmer said, "it was a worthy tradition when the game was over to shake hands not just with the opposing players, but their coaches and the rest and saying, 'Good game.' I'll do that, I'm sure," he said.

...

Are we thinking recount? Still got a few days left to decide.

"If the margin were a couple hundred votes, of course we'd recount. Since it's a couple thousand, we probably won't. But who knows?" he said. What if a few precincts have suspiciously high turnouts?

It's been a rough few weeks on Harmer's family. Ten days before the election, they received a "termination of lease" notice on their home. They spent the first part of this week moving (to a home a mile away in San Ramon). They had been saving money to buy a home.

"Now that buying makes sense," Harmer said, "we've lived off of our savings for two years and there's no down payment left."

So Harmer lost to Rep. John Garamendi in a neighboring East Bay district last year. And now he's facing doom down I-680. Does he plan to run again, somewhere?

"Oh golly," Harmer said. "That is really not an enticing prospect at present."

...

The upside, should he officially lose: He put up enough of a fight, he said that Dems -- desperate not to lose ANOTHER House seat -- dropped "a few million dollars (in the district) that probably let a couple other good people sneak through."

Harmer's next move: "For now," he said, "just figuring out how to fund the family budget."