The next House race in California: another Hackett?

[kansasblue]

Heavy Republican Dist. again....

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20050816/ap_on_el_ho/brf_california_congressional

[KingFlorez]

1. Could be

The Democrats don't have real good candidate right now, but we'll see.

[waldnorm]

2. Yahoo Article Only Acknowleges Right Wing Candidates in Article

Love how the story does not even acknowledge Democrats in the article. Here's Swing State Project's description of who's currently in the race:

http://www.swingstateproject.com/2005/08/ca-48_election.php

[Lexingtonian]

3. don't get your hopes too high

We're not going to find a great protest candidate or electorate in search of one every time. And winning is not that crucial in these kinds of districts.

The real prize is a little tsunami on November 8, 2006, that takes out 25 to 35 House Republicans in Democratic or swing districts. Remember that Democrats holding Republican districts tend to be pretty passive- their main use to the Party is to keep Republicans from holding/using their seat.

[HootieMcBoob]

7. I think it's very important to test special elections prior to 2006

Again this is another Republican stronghold - formally held by right-wing nutbag Dornan. The turnout for special elections is usually low - if we can rally our base and field a decent candidate we may have a chance. Bush has never been less popular and the Republicans in Congress have a very low favorable rating as well. It'll be very hard to find a candidate as perfect as Hackett but we should definitely try hard. Every one you take now gets us one seat closer to taking back the house.

[LeftyElvis]

4. Another

Diebold stronghold?

[Greeby]

8. Nope

IIRC, CA's Secretary of State told Diebold to get out of the state last year, and then Barabara Boxer went on to win re-election with a 20% margin

[gasperc]

5. we should definately show up and make a race of it

I bet if we spent $100k in that district, it would force the GOP to spend $1million

I'm going to check out open secrets.org and see what happened last year.

[gasperc]

6. just what I thought, the DEM spent $1500 and raised $40.00

A very nice man and likely a truly dedicated Democrat that saw it as his moral and patriotic duty to stand up and run.

If DU, DailyKos, swing state majority and some of the other great sites out there can just raise $20 or $30k, it could have a huge impact, build the base, possibly get national attention again AND force the GOP to spend $2 or $3million where Cox "only" had to spend $1million.



Total Raised and Spent
2004 RACE: CALIFORNIA DISTRICT 48

Christopher Cox (R)*
(65% of vote)

Raised: $1,120,427
Spent: $1,038,914
Cash on hand: $568,711
Last Report: 12/31/2004


PACs: $465,789 (42%)
Individuals: $638,813 (57%)
Candidate: $0 -
Other: $15,825 (1%)


John L. Graham (D)
(32% of vote)

Raised: $40
Spent: $1,528
Cash on hand: $0
Last Report: -


PACs: $0 -
Individuals: $40 (100%)
Candidate: $0 -
Other: $0 -

[kansasblue]

9. This is a good test. Dean said...

we would contest every election. We should have someone there.