As Bill Murray told us some years ago, dogs and cats living together are part of a disaster of biblical proportions. Well, it's happened. If Darrell Issa endorsing Howard Berman wasn't one of the signs of the apocalypse, this surely is. Reps Gary Miller, a Republican, and Joe Baca, a Democrat, are working together to get each other re-elected. They claim it's in the spirit of bipartisanship.
It is, in fact, what the Top Two primary has wrought on California. Miller is running in a Democratic leaning district with a PVI of D+4. Baca is running in a safer Democratic district, D+13, but one where 28% of the voters are registered Republicans. Normally both would be facing foes from the other party. Not in Top Two. Republicans didn't field a candidate in CA-35 and the Democrats fielded 4 candidates in CA-31 who split the vote so that both Miller and fellow Republican Bob Dutton will face off in November.
If there's one thing you can count on is members of congress supporting their own. Both these candidates will need to attract votes from the other party in order to win. They can both hope that the other's endorsement will sell with the opposing party. In fact, Baca is trying to represent more of Miller's current constitutes than he is. Miller could be especially handy if Baca wants to attack Gloria Negrete McLeod's HSR vote without coming out against it.
In a state where people are heavily behind term limits and don't mind inexperienced legislators I doubt selling that they've been in Washington DC a long time will go over well. In fact, I think it'll be a big line of attack for their challengers.
The authors of Top Two wanted candidates to appeal to a wider audience of voters. That won't change in traditional Democratic v. Republican races, but inter-party races will lead to strange bedfellows.
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