Democrats Challenging Southern California Republicans

Democrats have had the good fortune to pick up Republican congressional seats in San Diego, Palm Springs, Riverside, and Ventura county, places they haven't traditionally challenged the GOP. Now they're trying to pick up the next tier of Republican seats in Orange County. Like those, Democrats have no real bench of legislators or local politicians to rely on. They've usually not even bothered to recruit, leaving the races to anyone who can get their name on the ballot.

These some dude Democrats have never been able to raise money. A case in point is Doug Applegate, Darrell Issa's 2016 challenger for his North County San Diego based seat. Applegate raised almost nothing before the June primary. He finished close to Issa there and then the money poured in. He ended up raising $2 million. I'm guessing that little of that was due to his fundraising ability. It was a mix of PAC money, Democratic leadership raising money, and Internet donations. As the Sanders campaign showed there is a lot of money, even in small donations, if you can motivate people.

The Social Justice Warriors of the left are energized with Donald Trump in the White House and they see opportunity in Southern California. Democrat Harley Rouda is challenging Republican Dana Rohrabacher in a Fullerton based congressional seat. Rouda is a business man with no political experience. That's the type of candidate Democrats will have to run since they lack a legislative bench. Rouda lives in Laguna Beach. That's actually in the district. While a candidate who is from the district they seek to represent might seem obvious to some, it's been a struggle for Democrats. Several of their 2016 candidates weren't from the districts they sought to represent. Rouda has already seen strong fundraising and he could get a lot of internet donations without having to do much himself.