Comments

You have commented 339 times on Rantburg.

Your Name

Your e-mail (optional)

Website (optional)

	My Original Nic Pic-a-Nic Sorry. Comments have been closed on this article.
Foto

Submit your comments on this article

Home Front: Politix

Republican Garcia Has Early Lead in CA25 House Election

2020-05-14

More on this story from yesterday.

[REALCLEARPOLITICS] Less than two years ago, Caliphornia, an impregnable bastion of the Democratic Party, Republicans were written off as a permanent minority party in the state after losing seven congressional seats in traditionally conservative enclaves such as Orange County and the San Joaquin Valley.

Tuesday night they appeared poised to flip a Democrat-held seat back to the Republican column for the first time since 1998, when Wilson was wrapping up his second term in office. This time the election comes amid a global pandemic and stay-at-home orders that turned normal campaign strategies and last-minute get-out-the-vote efforts upside down.

By Tuesday night, former Navy fighter pilot and Raytheon executive Mike Garcia had a sizable 12-point lead over Assemblywoman Christy Smith, 56% to 44%. Both had spent the past six months vying to replace former Rep. Katie Nice Boobies! Hill
...Dem representative from California who ran as a bisexual, resigned from Congress when nude pictures of her came to light, along with information that she was being bisexual with one of her aides. Katie appears to be unacquainted with the word shame...
in a special election after Hill, a onetime Democratic rising star, resigned last October amid a sex scandal.

The race has garnered national attention, considered as both a bellwether for the political climate ahead of November and a glimpse of new campaign dynamics in the COVID-19 era.

California’s 25th Congressional District is an exurban district north of Los Angeles that went for Crooked Hillary Clinton
<q>Crooked Hillary</q> Clinton

...former first lady, former secretary of state, former presidential candidate, Conqueror of Benghazi, Heroine of Tuzla, formerly described by her supporters as the smartest woman in the world, usually described by the rest of us as The Thing That Wouldn't Go Away. Politix is not one of her talents, but it's something she keeps trying to do...
in 2016. Two years later, Hill knocked off the incumbent GOP congressman, Steve Knight, by eight points amid a blue tidal wave that decimated the state’s Republican congressional delegation and handed Democrats control of the House.

Republicans tend to fare better in California in elections attracting fewer voters, but Garcia appears to have exceeded party expectations in a race that attracted record participation for a special election. Some 34% of registered voters returned their mail-in ballots, while just a smattering of voters turned up in person at a limited number of polling places.

In an unexpected twist, the all mail-in voting that Democrats across the state demanded and Republicans criticized appeared to benefit Garcia. Older Republican voters returned their ballots in much higher numbers than younger Democrats in the district.

"I won’t give a victory speech tonight, I’ll save that for tomorrow night, but things are looking very encouraging," Garcia said on a conference call Tuesday night while thanking hundreds of campaign volunteers and staff. "Hopefully by tomorrow morning, we’ll have enough data to declare victory, but it is looking very good."

USA Today adds:

Democrat Christy Smith conceded victory Wednesday to Republican Mike Garcia in a nationally watched California congressional special election.

Garcia now fills a seat vacated in November when Democrat Katie Hill resigned amid allegations of inappropriate relationships with staff members. The term expires in January.

“While it's critical that we ensure every vote is counted and recorded, we believe that the current tally shows Mike Garcia is the likely victor in the May 12th election," Smith said in a statement. “As such, I'd like to congratulate him."

Garcia and Smith will face off again on Nov. 3.

With more than 143,000 votes counted Tuesday night, Garcia held 56% of the vote. Smith, a state assemblywoman from Santa Clarita, had 44% and trailed by more than 17,000 votes.

More than 420,000 ballots were mailed to voters in Los Angeles and Ventura counties for the election and more are expected to arrive at election offices later this week. They need to be postmarked no later than Tuesday's election day.

"After election day, there are still many outstanding ballots to be counted," Los Angeles County officials said in a news release, referring to incoming vote by mail ballots, conditional and provisional ballots. They said their next vote-count update would be Friday.

Garcia and Smith will compete again in the November election for a full two-year term. The 25th District runs from Santa Clarita to Simi Valley with about 70,000 registered voters in Ventura County and more than 350,000 in Los Angeles County.

Posted by:Fred

00:00