A nice surprise for Republicans this morning: the special election in California’s 36th Congressional District was always going to be a tough climb for the GOP, but one of their candidates, Craig Huey, appears to have edged out Debra Bowen, a Democrat and the current California Secretary of State, for one of the two slots in the runoff election in May.
The Los Angeles Times is calling it “a major upset“:
Huey, a conservative businessman who pumped $500,000 of his own money into the race, faces long odds in the runoff, given the district’s strong Democratic tilt. Hahn and Bowen were viewed from the start as the probable front-runners for the South Bay-based congressional seat. They led the pack in campaign contributions and were better known to voters than many of the others.
Hahn entered the race first and quickly sewed up endorsements from most of the area’s elected officials, raising $424,000 by April 27, the end of the latest reporting period. She also benefited from independent campaigns waged by unions, including the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor. In addition, an insurance group independently spent more than $100,000 to support her.
Bowen, backed by several national groups, the California Nurses Assn. and California’s major environmental organizations, had raised about $338,000. A pro-Democratic group known as the Lantern Project spent about $11,000 on calls to voters to support her, according to Federal Election Commission records.
Democrats (45%) hold an edge over Republicans (28%) in the 36th Congressional District, which runs mostly along the coast, from Venice to San Pedro. More than 22% of voters are unaffiliated with any state-recognized political party.
The results can be found here. Huey is less than 2,000 votes behind Hahn. Sure, the district has many more Democrats than Republicans, but about 9,000 Republicans turned out for this special election and voted for other candidates. In a low-turnout special election with a well-funded challenger, another upset GOP victory isn’t the most unthinkable scenario…