Monday, December 14, 2015

CA-21: Democrats in the Valley

One thing that perplexes election watchers who aren't from California is how Barack Obama could win districts in the Central Valley and Democrats could still lose them in congressional, state senate, and state assembly races. I've talked about this before, including my very last post. The Fresno Bee has weighed in with an article that hits the points I've hit on repeatedly. Democrats won’t win in districts like CA-21 because 1) they’d have to push someone who isn’t a progressive 2) they have no interest in listening to the country bumpkins who don’t know anything about anything.

Progressives don't win in the Central Valley. What's more Democrats have a tendency to run people from outside the district and, sometimes, far outside. They ran someone last time who was from Washington DC and had ties to a neighboring district nearly 20 years before. If they run someone local they have a chance to win. Likewise they can't run in the Central Valley the way they run in other districts. The Central Valley voter is heavily agricultural. So it's vital the candidate be able to know farming and connect with farmers. As the article mentions, they can't treat rural Hispanics the way they do city Hispanics. They have different needs. A Republican might win 15% of urban Hispanics but can win 40% of rural Hispanics.

Of course Republicans hope Democrats never figure this out.

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