Democrats in droves seek to topple GOP in Californias congressional races
For California Democrats, the flood of candidates looking to unseat GOP members of Congress could be too much of a good thing.
There already are 43 Democrats, many of them with plenty of campaign cash, lined up to challenge Republicans in the top seven districts targeted by their party. And with more than seven weeks to go before the March 9 filing deadline, that number could grow.
For Democratic leaders, it’s the more the merrier, especially in a state where President Trump — and Republicans in general — are increasingly unpopular.
“I think it’s a good thing,” said Drew Godinich, a spokesman for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. “As (New Mexico Rep.) Ben Ray Luján said, ‘No party ever lost an election due to too much energy and momentum.’”
The last thing Democratic leaders want is to hear discouraging words from California, which is key to their efforts to flip 24 GOP congressional seats and win back control of the House in November. The seven seats on the top of the party’s priority list — two in the Central Valley, one in Los Angeles County and four all or partially in Orange County — make up a big chunk of that wish list.
The campaign committee, invading the GOP stronghold of Orange County, has even moved its western headquarters to Irvine in an effort to show just how serious it is.
“In January 2016, the leader of the Orange County party was begging Democrats to get on board and run for Congress,” Godinich added. “Now we have multiple viable Democrats there who could compete and win.”
But that new enthusiasm comes with its own problems, said Tony Quinn, a former GOP consultant who is now an editor of the nonpartisan California Target Book, which looks at political races across the state.
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Every democrat running for a State/Fed seat becomes another voice that drowns out the GOP candidate.
