Rep. Allen West and perhaps-Rep.-elect Patrick Murphy (he’s already on Capitol Hill for orientation-type stuff this week, anyway) fought a hard race for West’s House seat out of his newly-redrawn Florida district — it turned out to be the most expensive House race in the country, and it went right down to the wire — but by a very narrow margin, they called it for Murphy. West isn’t ready to quit pursuing the matter just yet, however; he’s been challenging the results, and is filing an injunction for a recount of early voting. From The Hill:

Though Democrat Patrick Murphy was ahead of West at last count by .58 percent, just above the .5 percent margin that would force a recount by Florida law, West has refused to concede.

He has now filed a complaint, along with eight early voters in the race, calling for an injunction ordering St. Lucie County supervisor of elections Gertrude Walker and Florida secretary of state Dan Detzner to fully recount all eight days of early voting in St. Lucie County.

The St. Lucie County Canvassing Board did recount three days of early voting, due to a machine malfunction, and according to West’s campaign, the voter count subsequently declined by nearly 1,000 ballots.

“It stands to reason that if the remaining early votes were to be recounted, additional errors would be uncovered and the tabulation of votes revised accordingly,” the statement issued by West’s campaign reads.

There are still a few other outstanding House races around the country, but Florida plans to certify these results by Friday.

As ever, I find Rep. West’s refusal to be cowed by anyone downright impressive, but unfortunately, I can’t say I’m holding out much hope that this will bear fruit for him. I’m sure his fortitude, candor, and — sorry, I’m just gonna’ say it — badassery, will be missed by many (by others… maybe not so much). I tend to think we need more politicians like him willing to say what’s honestly on their mind, but, perhaps it’s not really goodbye?

If this whole Florida recount doesn’t go U.S. Rep. Allen West’s way, he has a standing invite to move to the more-Republican leaning state of Georgia.

In an interview with the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Georgia Republican Party chairwoman Sue Everhart said she’d love to welcome West back to Georgia.

“I would be glad to have him come back to Georgia and at some point run here,” Everhart said. “I would certainly try to help him because he has done his job. The way he ran his race didn’t in any way interfere with the job he did. He ran as a Republican, a conservative Republican.”