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Mr. Speaker, I would like to, first of all, in the traditional way, thank my family and my friends, who were willing to support me through this quite unusual campaign. I would like to thank the people of the 50th District for giving me their trust and huge responsibility to represent them.
For those who may not know, the 50th District is a classic California coastline district, very environmentally sensitive; and I am grateful today that they believe in recycling Congressmen. I know there are those in this room that are not happy to see me return, and all I ask of those is giving me a chance to work with you again. I think we had a good working relationship in the past, and I look forward to a great working relationship in the future.
I would like to thank those of you that stood up and helped me in every way. This was obviously a team effort, and it was one that was well fought, hard fought, and well won.
Ladies and gentlemen, I leave you with one message: there were 18 people running for this seat. The voters had one of the broadest choices of any congressional race. But there was one issue and only one issue that allowed me to be elected. It was not my experience. It was not my hard work, and God knows it was not my intellect. It was the fact that the people in the 50th District wanted something done, they wanted a job and a message sent to Washington, that now and here is the time to address illegal immigration.
We did not enjoy the situation or appreciate the problem that created the vacancy, but let me say quite clearly what is obvious in the last few months is that the greatest scandal in America is not that one man broke the law, but that 12 million illegal immigrants are in this country and Washington is not doing enough about it.
So I ask you, even if you disagree with me on this issue, let us join together and work to address this issue so that both sides, Democrat and Republican, and Independent, can go home proud that we did right by the American people and worked together for our future and our grandchildren's future.
Thank you very much.
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