Last week there was an impressive showing for the Riverside area as 150+ people showed up for a health care candlelight vigil in front of Congressman Ken Calvert's office.
The peaceful vigil was interrupted by a small contingent of teabagging nutjobs. As one of the volunteers was reading health care horror stories submitted online by public option supporters and people in the crowd, the young guy in the video (Ryan or Bryan or whoever) was forcing an "Obama Hitler" poster into her face, waving it aggressively, loudly saying rude, offensive things, and nearly knocking one of the elderly vigil goers off his walker seat (classy, real classy). Then, continuing the show of recklessness, one of the crazies had an air horn that she blasted directly into the ears of some teenage girls who were demonstrating peacefully on the sidewalk. That's assault, and if the police would have been at the rally like they should have been, maybe they could have prevented this abuse.
Two days later some of these same reckless idiots filmed this little video in front of Congressman Ken Calvert's office - right after meeting with one of Calvert's people to espouse their lies and anti-immigrant craziness. Four of them are known members of the whack job Minuteman group in Orange County (You can see pictures of their 'rally' in front of Calvert's office here http://californiascrusader.com... ).
Brian is wrong, that does not take care of the horse race for the day! Today is the deadline for Congressional incumbents and challengers to declare their fundraising totals for the second quarter of 2009, and some numbers on the California candidates jump out. If I write "incomplete," that's because their FEC report hasn't popped up yet. I'll fill in when they become available:
We'll start with the special election in CA-10:
John Garamendi: $300,000 raised, $260,000 CoH, $54,000 debt
Mark DeSaulnier: incomplete $212,000 raised, $136,000 CoH, $77,000 debt
Joan Buchanan: incomplete $64,000 raised, $179,000 CoH, $308,000 debt
Anthony Woods: $105,000 raised, $65,000 CoH
Adriel Hampton: incomplete $22,500 raised, $269.77 CoH, $346.82 debt
Waiting on more info on this one. John Garamendi's number came from 350 people, almost $1,000 a head. That suggests no grassroots fundraising base. Anthony Woods had over twice as many donors, who could be tapped again. UPDATE: OK, this is interesting. Joan Buchanan raised a fairly paltry amount considering the primary is in six weeks, but she took out a $250,000 loan and has a significant amount of debt. She seems to be blowing through operating expenses too. Likewise, Mark DeSaulnier, who raised a decent amount, has over half of his cash on hand in debt. And I missed that John Garamendi has $50,000 in debt as well. Suddenly, Anthony Woods has more debt-free cash on hand than anyone in the field but Garamendi.
CA-03:
Gary Davis: $34,000 raised, $30,000 CoH
Dr. Amerish Bera: $288,000 raised, $286,000 CoH
Dan Lungren (inc.): incomplete $233,000 raised, $322,000 CoH
Bill Slaton: $113,000 raised, $224,000 CoH, $116,000 debt
That is an eye-popping number for Amerish Bera, and lest you see it as a doctor self-funding, only $4,800 came from the candidate. I was shocked by that total. We'll see what Dan Lungren ends up raising later today, but it's entirely possible that Bera will have MORE cash on hand than the incumbent (Lungren only had $121,000 on hand at the end of April, with $12,000 in debts). Wow. UPDATE So Bera outraised Lungren, but he ekes out a cash on hand lead. As an incumbent, however, that's a weak performance. UPDATE II: Bill Slaton claimed to some that he raised $227,000 in three weeks, but half of that comes in the form of a personal loan to the campaign. His actual cash on hand is much less than Bera. But $113,000 in three weeks isn't bad.
CA-45:
Steve Pougnet: $201,000 raised, $203,000 CoH
Mary Bono Mack (inc): $166,000 raised, $448,000 CoH
Steve Pougnet outraised the incumbent in Q2, which is quite impressive. Mary Bono Mack starts out with a bigger war chest, so he has some work to do, but this is an excellent start, and I think Pougnet has a natural fundraising base that will only expand once his story gets out.
CA-44:
Bill Hedrick: $65,000 raised, $66,000 CoH
Ken Calvert (inc.): incomplete $407,000 raised, $384,000 CoH
Certainly an improvement over the first quarter for Bill Hedrick, and all of the money came from Southern California, which means he has a solid fundraising and volunteer base locally. He needs to spread that out nationally to maximize his potential in this winnable race.
Believe it or not, Dreier actually had a much bigger war chest last cycle. Russ Warner needs to do better to be competitive, but he's actually in a slightly better position than two years ago.
This was a tough quarter for Krom, with the tragic death of her son taking up a lot of time in the final weeks. Campbell ramped up his fundraising a bit after Krom beat him in the last quarter.
A solid quarter of fundraising for Francine Busby, notwithstanding that police action at one of her fundraisers while guests were pepper sprayed. UPDATE: Brian Bilbray had a good quarter.
The field is still getting together in this race, but I wanted to see Elton Gallegly's fundraising output, which is somewhat pathetic. He does have enough of a war chest that he doesn't necessarily need to get moving on that yet, however.
UPDATE the last: Swing State Project has a full roundup with a number of other interesting tidbits.
• In CA-04, Tom McClintock raised a bundle - $341,000 - but he still has over $100,000 in outstanding debt and only $245,000 CoH. Some fiscal conservative.
• In CA-10, one Republican is showing financial viability, David Harmer, with a $175,000 haul (but that's based on the first six months, not just the quarter). He has $144,000 CoH and $17,000 in outstanding debt. And his ideological viability in that district is, shall we say, suspect, though he is likely to reach a runoff.
• In CA-11, which I think is safe, Jerry McNerney raised $288,000 and has $519,000 cash on hand. One of his potential opponents, Brad Goehring, would seem to have a good financial position with $259,000 CoH, but he only raised $14,000 for the quarter and has $250,000 in debt due to a massive loan. The same with Jon Del Arroz, who guaranteed a huge loan for himself and has as much in debt as he does in cash on hand. These guys are wasting money, in my opinion.
• I added Ken Calvert's numbers in CA-44. Clearly the NRCC is protecting him by bolstering his fundraising.
• CA-47 is on the fringe of being competitive, but Van Tran had a good quarter, beating Loretta Sanchez (barely) in fundraising:
We're setting a course for the center of the sun in the state budget process right now, but today is also the last day of the second quarter, an important day for Congressional candidates, who must file fundraising reports based on close of business today. So this is as good a time as any to take a look at the Congressional races and where we stand at this point. I have not yet done similar roundups for 2010 statewide offices or legislative races, but plan to do so in the near future. If you find any of these challenges attractive, I urge you to pass a few bucks along to the candidate of your choice. This quarter will help or hurt the candidacies in terms of their perception of viability.
A word on the notations. PVI refers to the Cook Political Report's Partisan Voting Index. I've also included the Presidential performance from last year and the particular Congressional performance, where applicable. That information is available for the whole nation at this link. Open Congress also has a good Wiki on all the seats involved.
(This is our top Congressional challenge in 2010. If you have a few bucks to spare, consider making a donation. - promoted by David Dayen)
Last year, thanks to the grassroots, we came closer to beating Ken Calvert in California's 44th District than anyone thought possible.
With that near upset, people from across the country took note of this seat - especially the Republicans!
National Republicans have already begun raising money hand over fist from their big business, special interest contributors to keep Ken Calvert in office.
In fact, later today, Ken Calvert is set to receive $100,000 from the National Republican Congressional Committee as part of their "Patriot Program." They're doing everything they can to hold on to the seat!
According to the NRCC, these Patriots will be provided with the resources they need to build strong campaigns to help Republicans fight their way back to the Majority. We can't let this happen!
Last week, the Rothenberg Political Report http://rothenbergpoliticalrepo... came out and listed our race as having moved from last year's "Solid Republican" ranking to now "Leaning Republican".
With that new ranking, we've been told we're one of the three top races in the country to watch.
As encouraging as that is, I am also being told that I now need to immediately raise huge sums of money if I want to remain competitive.
I didn't get within 2% last cycle by raising millions of dollars and sending out flashy ads. Instead, I did it the old fashioned way. I walked the district and I actually talked to voters one-on-one. I was able to connect with thousands of families who have watched their jobs disappear and their homes lost to foreclosure - even though they always played by the rules. In 2008, I did what I do best: connect with voters one-on-one and discuss issues to explain exactly how I would be different than their current representative. At the heart of each issue (the economy, health care, the environment), we all share the same basic beliefs that we want our children to grow up in a safe, secure, thriving community and to do better than we did.
Unfortunately, I know that this race will be different and that strategy alone won't work in 2010 because the other side is so desperate to retain the seat.
The NRCC now realizes this seat is vulnerable and have made it clear they don't want to lose it. They've already set up a donation page for Calvert and Newt Gingrich is hosting a fundraiser tonight to help raise money for him.
I've been saving the changes in registration differences in the competitive districts that I track in my regular registration number updates. Here I will show the changes in registration going from the last numbers before the 2008 election to the latest numbers released a few days ago. Here they are in tabulated form. And for the congressional districts, in addition to the 8 Obama-Republican districts, I tossed in CA-04, because the House race there was very close in spite of the considerable Republican advantage in registration and the presidential race, and CA-46, the district of McCain's closest win of the 11 McCain districts and the only one that he won with less than 50%.
(More good stuff. Thanks! - promoted by Brian Leubitz)
With the release of the new registration numbers, and a couple of special elections just around the corner, I now have updates for the open and/or competitive State Senate and State Assembly districts, as well as the eight Obama-Republican districts. The Secretary of State's website has the presidential results by district, so I am including the presidential results in each district.
Breaking news: We now have a (albeit slight) registration advantage in AD-10!
And an edit: I am including CA-04 in the list because of McClintock's less-than-1% win, even though the presidential race and registration gap are not particularly close.
In 2007-08, I wrote a monthly series of House race roundups here in California, taking a look at the races with the highest potential to change members of Congress. This cycle, there are promises from the national Democrats that they will pay attention to a number of seats in California held by Republicans, and with the statewide races at the top of the ticket looking favorable for Democrats, and Republican registration collapsing throughout the state, in theory we should see some more movement. But many of these elements were true the past two cycles, amounting to little. Because it's a statewide officer election year, I will also do a statewide races roundup at a later time. But for now, let's take a look at the seats most likely to flip in 2010, starting with seats currently held by Democrats, few of which are in play. In addition to those "threatened" by Republicans, I'm including two seats where I've heard rumblings about primary challenges to incumbents.
A word on the notations. PVI refers to the Cook Political Report's Partisan Voting Index. I've also included the Presidential performance from last year and the particular Congressional performance, where applicable. That information is available for the whole nation at this link.
Ok, so no one is exactly shocked to hear that today I've made it official but I wanted to come here to this blog to post it myself since the folks at Calitics have always been good to me.
I also wanted to post a little more about myself so that you understand why I'm running and why you should care about this race.
(Another great report on these numbers. Thanks! - promoted by Brian Leubitz)
With the release of the new registration numbers, I now have updates for the open and/or competitive State Senate and State Assembly districts. The Secretary of State's website has the presidential results by district, so I am including the presidential results in each districts.
I am also tacking on the eight districts that are our top targets in 2010: CA-03, CA-24, CA-25, CA-26, CA-44, CA-45, CA-48, and CA-50.
So the first quarter of fundraising for the 2010 cycle ended, and this week the reports were filed. Swing State Project has a good roundup. Here's what I found interesting:
• In CA-48, Beth Krom had an unusually strong quarter, considering she entered the race in the middle of it. She raised $63,000 for the quarter, actually beating the incumbent, John Campbell, who raised $55,000. Now, in 2008 candidates like Nick Leibham and Debbie Cook beat their incumbent counterparts in fundraising repeatedly, but had major disadvantages in cash on hand because the incumbents had assembled war chests from prior fundraising. And that's the case here too - Campbell has $300,000 CoH, while Krom has $61,000, a 5-to-1 advantage. But to beat Campbell so early in the cycle shows a lot of potential.
• Debbie Cook, Charlie Brown and Bill Durston basically raised no money in the quarter, dampening any expectation that they will run again in their respective districts. Durston raised $9,000, but that was probably all before he hinted at dropping out due to medical troubles.
• In CA-44, Bill Hedrick may be getting national attention, but he's not raising national numbers, and if he continues to put up $14,000 for a quarter, the D-Trip will either walk away or look for another challenger. I respect the hell out of Hedrick but he's got to do better than that.
• CA-37 is absolutely ripe for a primary challenge. Noted deadbeat Laura Richardson raised a paltry $28,500, as an incumbent, and her $39,000 cash on hand is dwarfed by $363,000 in debt. We deserve better than Laura Richardson in that very blue district.
• Jerry McNerney put up a $275,000 quarter in CA-11.
• His numbers weren't spectacular, but Palm Springs Mayor Steve Pougnet is drawing some attention for his challenge to Mary Bono Mack in CA-45. This is another "Obama Republican" district, and Pougnet, a gay father of two, has an interesting profile for the district and a proven record in the community. This one bears watching.
(Sorry, guys, I wrote this one, as well as any "Open Thread" comment. I forget to log out sometimes...
- promoted by David Dayen)
State Democrats are buzzing about this weekend's Carla Marinucci article entitled "California Dems target 8 GOP districts", which claims that Republican voter registration is dropping fast, providing a major opportunity to pick up Congressional seats in 2010.
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has targeted 35 districts across the country represented by Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives - including eight in California - that were won by Barack Obama in the 2008 presidential election, said Jennifer Crider, the committee spokeswoman.
The Democrats plan increased appeals to voters in those areas and will make aggressive efforts to recruit Democratic candidates to run against the Republican incumbents, she said [...]
The vulnerable California districts with Republican representatives that were won by Obama are those of Reps. Dan Lungren of Gold River (Sacramento County), Mary Bono-Mack of Palm Springs, David Dreier of San Dimas (Los Angeles County), Elton Gallegly of Thousand Oaks (Ventura County), Brian Bilbray of Solana Beach (San Diego County), John Campbell of Newport Beach (Orange County), Ken Calvert of Riverside and Howard "Buck" McKeon of Santa Clarita (Los Angeles County), the committee says.
It would be nice if I thought any of this would work. First of all, the registration changes didn't just spring up in December 2008. These trends have been occurring for some time, and were all present during the last election. Despite this, we had a candidate in CA-25 (McKeon) who spent less than $10,000 or her entire campaign. The candidate in CA-24 (Gallegly) won her primary because of her ballot designation and without spending any significant money. (By the way, CA-25 is now the seat held by the GOP with the closest registration gap between Republicans and Democrats in the whole state. Did you know that?) In the races where we managed to compete, our candidates significantly underperformed the top of the ticket, and in most cases underperformed Barbara Boxer's performance in 2004, when a less dominant John Kerry was at the top of the ticket.
I don't think there are that many other people who have followed California congressional races closer than I have, and I have to say that we simply suck at elections in these kinds of races out here in California. The state party is dysfunctional at best and downright criminal at worst. Put it this way: we had the same chance to win all these seats in 2008. Nate Silver, making a separate point, provides a list of the 30 districts where Obama won between 50 and 52 percent of the vote. As you'll see, we did extremely well in those seats, except for in California.
Barack Obama won 51 percent of the vote in NY-20 on November 4th. How did congressional candidates perform in other districts where he received between, say, 50 and 52 percent of the vote? Again, we see essentially an even split; Republicans won 16 of 30 such districts and Democrats won 14:
Won by Republicans (16): CA-24, CA-25, CA-26, CA-44, CA-45, CA-50, FL-10, FL-18, MI-4, MN-3, NE-2, NJ-7, NY-23, VA-4, WI-1, WI-6
Won by Democrats (14): FL-22, KS-3, MI-1, MI-7, MN-1, NC-2, NJ-3, NY-1, NY-19, NY-20*, NY-24, TX-23, VA-2, WA-3
Winning percentage in these seats in states other than CA: 58.3%
Winning percentage in CA: 0.0%
By the way, the other two districts not mentioned above that are now being "targeted"? CA-03 (Lungren) was 49-49 Obama, and CA-48 (Campbell) was also 49-49 Obama. Heck, even CA-46 was only 50-48 McCain. Obama got 46% in CA-19 (Radanovich), where there was no Democratic candidate, and 47% in CA-40 (Royce).
Some would argue that, properly resourced, these seats would suddenly become very winnable. I give you CA-50, where Nick Leibham consistently beat Brian Bilbray in fundraising and maxed out at the 45% ceiling on Democrats in that district.
CA-44 is somewhat winnable because Bill Hedrick came close in '08 and is running again. We lost our best candidate in CA-03, Bill Durston, and everywhere else, I'm just extremely dubious, because the state party has systematically psyched itself out of winning these seats (thanks to the Faustian bargain of incumbency-protected gerrymandering designed by... imminent state party chair John Burton), and the commitment at the national level has been known to wane. We've left dozens of winnable elections on the table the past two cycles, dramatically underperforming the nation. A little DCCC money won't change that.
(The D-Trip is really taking an interest in CA-44. - promoted by David Dayen)
I'm excited to announce that my district is one of only six nationwide being targeted by the DCCC in a series of radio ads being rolled out next week.
The ads will target Republican members of Congress who opposed the middle class tax cut in President Obama's economic recovery act. These ads are the DCCC's way of taking the message of middle class tax cuts and economic recovery directly to the public in radio ads called "Tax Man" that will run in the lead up to April 15th (tax day).
My opponent Ken Calvert is one of the six Republicans being targeted for his vote against the middle class tax cut.
This is the DCCC's fourth phase of the "Putting Families First" campaign and we've been fortunate enough to be included in the other phases as well.
Representative Calvert is back in usual form - putting politics rather than families first. He released a newsletter this week touting the fact the he's once again defied the new administration.
Of particular interest was his slam against what he calls the "Mortgage Cram-Down Bill" (H.R. 1106), saying it would allow judges to "cram down" the principle amount on home mortgages.
Has Mr. Calvert somehow forgotten that the largest city in his district (Riverside) now has the fourth largest foreclosure rate in the country?
It was 1974 when Jerry Brown ran for governor as a dashing 36-year-old reformer, the embodiment of change in Watergate's aftermath.
"I was the new spirit," Brown recalled. "That was my slogan."
No one would mistake Brown for a new spirit today. At 70, he occupies a prime spot among the elders of California politics. His career has spanned four decades, with three failed tries for the White House along his way up, down and back up the elective ranks.
Now, after two years as state attorney general, this Democrat who first ran for office in the era of Janis Joplin and the Beatles is remaking himself yet again. This time, Brown's quest is to recapture the job he won 35 years ago: governor of California.
California doesn't have a good history of Democratic candidates for Governor not named Brown over the last 50 years, so that alone is something. Brown has a lot to recommend him for the job and almost as much to reject him. He would be solid on the environment, energy and infrastructure but an absolute mess on prison policy. Right now, the field includes Gavin Newsom and John Garamendi, with several other possibles. If there's a movement candidate on the horizon, I don't see him or her.
The second development is that the DCCC, the campaign arm for Democrats in the House, has launched radio ads in 28 districts nationwide attacking House Republicans for their obstruction on the stimulus package.
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC), chaired by Congressman Chris Van Hollen, today announced the DCCC is launching a Putting Families First ad and grassroots campaign in 28 targeted Republican districts. The ads focus on the Republicans out of step priorities by putting bank bail outs and building schools in Iraq before the needs of the Americans in the struggling economy. The Putting Families First ads begin airing on Tuesday morning during drive time and will run for a week.
In addition to the strategic radio ads in 28 Republican districts, the DCCC will also begin a grassroots initiative which includes targeted e-mails to 3 million voters and nearly 100,000 person-to-person telephone calls.
This is pretty early to be making such a move. And what's very notable is the districts in California the D-Trip is hitting.
Representative Dan Lungren (CA-03)
Representative Elton Gallegy (CA-24)
Representative Ken Calvert* (CA-44)
Representative Brian Bilbray (CA-50)
CA-03 is an obvious choice, as it's the most ripe district in the state for a turnover, and Bill Durston has already announced for a third run after his good showing in 2008. It's good to see CA-44 get some action; Bill Hedrick came the second-closest in the state to defeating a Republican, and he's running again. (The asterisk on that race means that they are actually using two separate ads in his district, one on children's heath care and one on the bank bailout, so they're actually targeting Calvert more than the others.) CA-50 is a perennial tease, with the Democrat never besting 46% against Brian Bilbray, but it's just close enough to target.
The inclusion of CA-24 is interesting. We basically had no candidate there this time, as Marta Jorgensen spent pocket change to go against Elton Gallegly. She still managed 42% of the vote, showing that the floor for Democrats is fairly substantial. Gallegly has threatened retirement in the past and this is probably just pressure to get him to leave Congress. Perhaps the D-Trip knows of a good candidate waiting in the wings.
No CA-26, CA-46 or CA-04 on this list, probably because Debbie Cook, Russ Warner and Charlie Brown have made no indication that they're running again.
Bill Hedrick, CA-44 Democratic candidate, stopped by the Rural Caucus to talk about his run and the aftermath. The votes are still being tabulated, but Hedrick ran a very solid campaign in a very Republican district. Even if he's not able to pull it out this year, Hedrick vows to run again and pull off the upset of Ken Calvert.
They also had many of the party officer candidates talking to the group. Some nerd spoke about the male vice-chair race. All three chair candidates stopped by, and the event was pretty well attended.
Check the flip for photos of chair candidates John Burton and Alex Rooker. I apologize to Eric Bauman, as his photo didn't come out.
Unfortunately the news is not good. In CA-04, Charlie Brown has fallen behind of Tom McClintock by 1,092 votes, with still over 52,000 left to count. In CA-44, the number is now 5,896 votes separating Ken Calvert and Bill Hedrick. Both are trending away. In AD-10, Jack Sieglock now has a 614-vote lead on Alyson Huber. Only in SD-19 are we still on top, with Hannah-Beth Jackson leading Tony Strickland by 1,203 votes, which is exactly where the race was over the weekend.
A roundup of the close races at a glance is here. And you can help defray the costs of the lawyers to watch the counts and the staffs to support them at the Calitics ActBlue page.
UPDATE by Brian: Strickland has now taken a small lead over Hannah-Beth (178920 to 178380) after a bunch of votes came in from Ventura County. Frank Russo has the story. There are still a bunch of votes to count though.
(Bill Hedrick is on the Calitics ActBlue Page. You can give there to all four of our candidates in tight races, Bill, Charlie Brown, Alyson Huber, and Hannah-Beth Jackson. - promoted by Brian Leubitz)
The Hedrick campaign still needs help paying legal costs to make sure every vote is counted. Can you help? The ActBlue page is at www.actblue.com/page/hedrickballotfund.
The energy and determination of the Hedrick for Congress campaign remains high as the tally of the final votes in the 44th Congressional District race began last week. Signature verification and sorting of ballots are continuing this weekend, with the actual count beginning on Monday, November 11th and resuming after the holiday on Wednesday.
The Hedrick Campaign has enlisted over 100 volunteers to observe the process, working in shifts to cover every available hour at the Riverside County Registrar of Voters in Moreno Valley.
Volunteers last week remarked repeatedly that they were impressed with the professionalism and efficiency of the Registrar's staff. The campaign has found the Riverside County Registrar of Voters, Barbara Dunmore, to be completely forthcoming in answering all questions and clearly explaining the process ahead.
(We owe Bill Hedrick a debt of gratitude. We also need to study his race to figure out why it worked when others faltered. - David Dayen, I'm in for $25 for Bill and $25 for Charlie, who's with me? You can give to both at the Calitics ActBlue Page. - promoted by Brian Leubitz)
Dear Friends and Supporters,
We may be down, but we are by no means out. This race truly is too close to call until every last vote has been counted.
That, however, is not stopping Ken Calvert from trying to end the counting before we can close the gap. Calvert's lawyer is already challenging signatures and trying to get vote-by-mail ballots disqualified.
Today (two days after the election), Ken Calvert told the OC Register that he's sure he won re-election. We beg to differ. With 100,000+ votes still left to be counted and a vote difference of only about 4000 votes, it looks like he knows he's in trouble, and is trying to declare a victory before all the votes have been counted. We can NOT let this happen.
We have assembled a legal team to make sure the process is fair and that all valid ballots get counted. We have the best lawyer money can buy, but good lawyers are expensive.
Can you donate to the Hedrick Ballot Fund right now to help pay our legal costs and make sure every vote is counted?
It just may well be the case this cycle that one of our greatest regrets was not paying enough attention to CA-44. Then again, we may not regret it at all, because Bill Hedrick may yet defeat Ken Calvert.
According to Lori Vendermeir, Hedrick's communications director, the OC Register and the Press Enterprise called the race for Calvert, but then rescinded their call. There are, simply put, tens of thousands of absentee and provisional ballots left to count, and Bill apparently keeps on inching closer.
HOWEVER: In typical Republican fashion, Ken Calvert's lawyers are trying to shut down the counting process in both Riverside and Orange County.
If you live in these counties--especially if you're a CA-44 voter--we need your help.
Call the office of the registrars, and tell them to count every vote. Bill is not going to concede until every vote his counted, and he stands a reasonable chance at pulling out a shocker in SoCal.
Orange County Registrar: (714) 567-7600
Riverside County Registrar: (951) 486-7200
... Dave here. Just to put some hard numbers to this, right now, the results are here:
Bill Hedrick (Dem) 85,039 48.6%
Ken Calvert (Rep) 89,679 51.4%
That is not yet in the universe of what the Secretary of State calls a close race, one that has a spread of less than 2% between the winner and loser. But clearly, with so many ballots left to be counted, CA-44 must be put into the realm of possibility.
By the way, if you're wondering what is a "close race" right now, that would be AD-10, SD-19, CA-04, and Prop. 11. None of those should be called right now based on current information. So as I said yesterday, this election is not over. Frank Russo also has a good report on this.
...Dave again. Just to piggyback on this, Charlie Brown's campaign has sent an email to their list (on the flip):
