Posted on 07/11/2011 2:29:41 PM PDT by Maelstorm
How optimistic should Republicans be about tomorrow’s special election in California’s 36th House district? The good news is that GOP challenger Craig Huey — who wasn’t even expected to make the runoff — has a fighting chance against Democratic Los Angeles city councilwoman Janice Hahn.
Washington Republicans think Democrats are getting nervous, the turnout numbers for Republicans and Democrats in the early vote are surprisingly even, and the fundraising numbers were also surprisingly even at the end of June. All of this is occurring in a district that scores D+12 in the Cook Partisan Voting Index, that Obama carried with 64 percent of the vote, and that Democrat Jane Harman represented, with few serious challenges, for nine terms.
But the challenge for Huey shouldn’t be underestimated. And if Huey does pull off the upset, it may not be the national bellwether that the GOP would hope. Just as Republicans argued they lost the special election in New York’s 26th district because a phony “Tea Party” candidate split the vote, Democrats will have good reasons to proclaim extraordinary circumstances here.
Hahn brings a considerable history to the race, and a significant base of support from her ten years on the city council; to make the two-candidate runoff, she survived a primary that attracted interest from California’s secretary of state and other experienced candidates from her party.
But few Democratic House candidates have long ties to controversial programs to reach out to gang members, and the Huey campaign holds almost nothing back in its effort to showcase that issue. On April 30, 2008, Chris Blatchford, an investigative reporter for Los Angeles’s Fox affiliate, ran a shocking report entitled “Janice Hahn Funds Gangs.”
(Excerpt) Read more at nationalreview.com ...
Kalipornia is done. The fork was stuck in it long ago. Anyone with a bit of sense and the ability has already left.
It’s a lost cause.
I’m not so sure about that. I think California can return to its Reagan glory but it is going to take work like with prop 8. We’ll see tomorrow as far as this race goes. If Huey pulls an upset then it is big. The idea that Hahn is just a bad candidate is crazy, all far left liberals are bad candidates and do and say crap like she has. If he comes close it should be a wake up call to CA GOP. We have seen with otehr candidates like Harmer that many of these districts can be made much more competitive than conventional wisdom would suggest. It just will take a lot of consistent work.
We live in this district. We have been visited by precinct walkers for both candidates. There is signage around for both candidates.
Hahn sends out mailers insinuating that Huey is “extreme” in his religious views because he is a pro-life evangelical. Huey’s mailers have been about the economy, and not much about Hahn.
Hahn has nothing to lose. This district is about to be redrawn in the redistricting process and Hahn is going to find that she lives outside its boundaries. Even if she moves back into it, the re-drawn lines will skew the electorate more Republican. So, if Huey loses, he can run again next time, and he will be a known name with a larger proportion of Republican voters. He’s in a good position.
Major typo.
HUEY has nothing to lose. Not Hahn.
Thanks for the inside track. I personally would just like to see him get close.
The significance of this race will affect the debt ceiling battle. If Huey wins, Obama will be in even worse shape; and it will be every RAT for himself.
Every election the media goes around telling everyone how close it is in blue regions.
Every election hardcore radical libs crush conservatives in landslides.
It’s California. Huey could be a great guy, but he’s fighting an uphill battle over broken bottles on his knees....
Anything close cannot be spun in Dem's favor even if Hahn wins. With all the factors in her favor, she should crush him by 30 points.
I’m guessing that she will too.
It is California - land of the liberal neo-aristocrats. :(
If you live in California 36 get out and vote for Huey, it might help Boehner get a spine for a few weeks.
junkey Ken Hahn was a LA county supervisor for 30 yrs
Ken Hahn was a LA county supervisor for 30 yrs
Hey GeronL, why don’t you put a sock in it! just returned from a week of camping in Mendocino. You can’t replace this kind of scenery with what you get out the back window of your doublewide in backwater county, somewhere in the South! Despite your predictions, California will survive, and again be the prosperous place it was in the past. I have a lot of sense, and I don’t intend to leave, ever!
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