(AP) WASHINGTON - Democrat Charlie Brown conceded defeat to Republican state Sen. Tom McClintock on Wednesday in their hard-fought race for California’s 4th District House seat, leaving only four House races still unsettled.

Brown announced his decision a day after counties in the largely rural northeastern California district turned in their final vote tallies to the secretary of state. The final count gave McClintock a lead of nearly 1,800 votes out of more than 370,000 counted in the contest for the vacant seat. The longtime incumbent, GOP Rep. John Doolittle, retired while under investigation in the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal.

With McClintock’s victory, Democrats have a 255-176 edge in the incoming House, compared to the 236 House seats they held through most of the current Congress. Final ballot counts are still at issue in one race each in Ohio and Virginia, and two Louisiana seats will be decided in hurricane-delayed elections Saturday.

Brown could have requested a recount, but McClintock’s lead looked insurmountable and the Democrat called his opponent Wednesday to bow out. "The outcome of this election is no longer in question," Brown wrote in an e-mail to supporters.

The narrowness of McClintock’s win was remarkable in one of California’s most conservative districts, where Republicans enjoy a 15 percentage point advantage over Democrats among registered voters. The 4th district stretches from Sacramento north to Oregon and east to Nevada.

McClintock, forced by term limits to leave a state Senate seat in Southern California, is well-known among state conservatives for his unbending opposition to taxes and government spending. Brown, a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel who came close to beating Doolittle in 2006, sought to label McClintock a carpetbagger and career politician.

In Virginia, incumbent GOP Rep. Virgil Goode has requested a recount in his narrow loss to Democrat Tom Perriello in the 5th district. In Ohio, the state Supreme Court will consider how to handle thousands of uncounted provisional ballots in the 15th district race between Republican Steve Stivers and Democrat Mary Jo Kilroy.