2 Calif. Democrats Deadlocked in Bid to Unseat GOP Incumbent
*By Christian Smith*
Democrats are in a holding pattern, waiting to see who will take on California Republican Congressman Dana Rohrabacher in one of the key districts their party needs to flip in November to retake control of the House of Representatives.
Initially, California Democrats wanted to box Rohrabacher out of the race by stacking the ballot with two of their own candidates, but they were unable to game California's "jungle primary" system, said Jon Miller, the White House correspondent for CRTV.
"We know that the Democrats, they sunk millions of dollars into the 48th District," Miller told Cheddar. "They wanted to load the ballot with two Democrats, but we know that they're not going to be able to do that because Dana Rohrabacher is a confirmed winner there."
In California, the top two vote getters, regardless of party affiliation, get spots on the November ballot.
Rohrabacher, a 30-year incumbent, received more than 30 percent of the vote Tuesday, and will face either the businessman Harley Rouda, or the biomedical researcher Hans Kierstead. Those two Democrats were separated by fewer than 100 votes as of the [New York Times' last count](https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/06/05/us/elections/results-california-primary-elections.html).
Democrats are hoping to pick up seven Republican-held districts in California that Hillary Clinton won in 2016. California's 39th and 49th districts are at the top of the target list; two longtime Republican representatives are retiring.
Congressman Ed Royce announced in January that he would vacate his seat in the 39th district after 26 years in office, drawing 17 candidates from both major parties into the race. (Two of them bowed out before Tuesday's vote.) The Republican former assemblywoman Young Kim and a Democratic philanthropist, Gil Cisneros, appear to be the winners of the primary.
In California's 49th district, Republican Congressman Darrell Issa is stepping down from the seat he has held for 16 years. Republican State Board of Equalization member Diane Harkey has guaranteed herself a spot in the November midterms. And 29-year-old Sara Jacobs, the granddaughter of the billionaire co-founder of Qualcomm, Irwin Jacobs, is waiting to hear if she or the lawyer Mike Levin, another Democrat, will earn the right to run for Issa's seat. Levin led Jacobs by more than a thousand votes as of Wednesday afternoon.
Results won't be official for a few weeks as the state still has to count the larger-than-expected number of provisional ballots.
The Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder said [in a statement](https://www.lavote.net/docs/rrcc/news-releases/06052018_E-Day-Release.pdf) that the names of 118,522 voters were omitted from poll workers' rosters of registered voters at almost a third of L.A.'s voting locations. Voters left off of the roster were given provisional ballots.
For the full interview, [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/too-early-to-call-winners-in-key-california-house-districts).
Markets were pointing mostly lower to end the week as investors reacted to the threat of a Covid resurgence in Europe. Jeff Schulze, Investment Strategist at ClearBridge Investments joined Cheddar's Opening Bell to discuss Friday's pre-market activity.
A federal judge tossed out a lawsuit against financial services platform Robinhood following the meme stock saga that swept the investment world. The judge said it found no wrongdoing on Robinhood's part after the platform halted trading on popular meme stocks Gamestop and AMC.
Jill and Carlo are back to cover the latest in the Rittenhouse trial, new information on the origins of Covid, return-to-office and more.
JOIN US FOR THE YOUTUBE WATCH PARTY @ 9aET: http://www.youtube.com/cheddarnow
The U.S. Justice Department has filed a lawsuit against Uber after it was discovered that disabled people were being disproportionately affected by extra “wait time” fees. Attorney Jonathan Bell joined Cheddar to discuss.
Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko has been accused by the EU of manufacturing a migration crisis along his border with Poland. But, even as tensions appear to be stabilizing at the moment, Ali Noorani, the president and CEO of National Immigration Forum and the host of the "Only in America" podcast spoke to Cheddar about the ongoing danger to the migrants who hail from countries like Iraq and Afghanistan. "What is going to happen to folks who are in Belarus who came from these countries? Is Lukashenko going to provide them asylum and protection in Belarus, or are they going to continue to be political pawns in a geopolitical battle," he said. "Real people's lives are being put at great risk."
A group of crypto investors has come together to raise millions of dollars in the hopes of owning a rare piece of the U.S. Constitution. According to the crypto group, "Constitution DAO" It is time to put the constitution in the hands of the people. CEO and Founder of Metaversal Yossi Hasson, joined Cheddar to discuss more.
Polarization is among the defining traits of American politics in the 21st century. Sometimes it seems like the only thing we can all agree on is the fact that we don't really agree on anything. But those divisions don't just stop at whether you vote red or blue.
A new survey from the Pew Research Center finds that rather than just two political buckets, we have nine. The "2021 political typology" as it's called distinguishes between different ideological subsets in the Democratic and Republican party. It encompasses everyone from the loudest revolutionary lefties, to the loudest insurrection apologists on the right.
Andrew Daniller, research associate at the Pew Research Center, joins None of the Above to discuss.
Tanya Snyder, transportation reporter at Politico, joins None of the Above with J.D. Durkin to discuss the bipartisan infrastructure law, what it means for the electric vehicle industry and whether Democrats will be able to capitalize on the legislative victory ahead of the 2022 midterms.
Heading into 2022, the eyes of political nerds like us are fixed on statehouses across the country. State legislatures are in the process of taking the data from the 2020 census and using it to draw new congressional districts. The process has major implications for midterms, as Republicans could retake the majority just by gerrymandering enough seats into their column. In Maryland, state level Democrats are considering several maps, one of which would completely draw out the only Republican from the state in Congress.
Bruce DePuyt, senior reporter at Maryland Matters, and Helen Brewer, legal analyst at Princeton's Electoral Innovation Lab, join Cheddar Politics to discuss.
