California takes center stage in battle for House majority
Democrats and Republicans are pouring manpower and money into the state ahead of the 2018 midterms.
By ALEX ISENSTADT and GABRIEL DEBENEDETTI 05/09/17 06:59 PM EDT
California has emerged as the epicenter of the already-intense battle for the House in 2018, as both parties rush resources and manpower to a state that could determine the chamber’s balance of power.
With 18 months still to go until the election, Democrats and Republicans are mapping out TV advertising plans across the state, setting up headquarters, digging into polling, and hiring operatives. The showdown has swiftly drawn in Hollywood players, major donors and grass-roots activists.
California is home to seven vulnerable Republican incumbents in districts where Hillary Clinton beat Donald Trump — more than a quarter of the seats Democrats need to flip. And there are early indications that the landscape taking shape will benefit Democrats: a turbocharged liberal movement galvanized by the House GOP-led Obamacare rollback, shifting demographics that have moderated California’s last remaining conservative bastions, and rising discontent with the president.
“This struggle (in California) is the priority, no question,” said Tom Steyer, the billionaire San Francisco environmentalist whose NextGen Climate group started running digital ads against the vulnerable Republicans after their votes for the House health care bill last week. “If you look at the numbers, the vulnerability of these Republican Congress people is disproportionately here.”
The maneuvering is playing out in public — with both sides spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to advertise in the state’s expensive media markets — and behind the scenes. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee for the first time has moved its entire Western regional political office from Washington, D.C., to Irvine, California.
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http://www.politico.com/story/2017/05/09/california-midterms-2018-238169
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