In a stunning upset, conservative businessman and Tea Party activist Craig Huey appears to have defeated heavily-favored Democratic Secretary of State Debra Bowen for a runoff spot to succeed Rep. Jane Harman in Congress. Huey came from behind to finish 206 votes ahead of Bowen last night and will now face LA city councilwoman Janice Hahn in a July 12 runoff for the 36th congressional district. Huey was a California Young Americans for Freedom leader in his college days.
9,800 late-arriving votes remain to be counted (You can follow the add-on count drama at this handy link) http://vote.sos.ca.gov/returns/special/us-congress/district/36/ but Huey’s respected campaign manager Jimmy Camp told the Associated Press last night he is confident they’ve eliminated Bowen. The trend of last night’s vote count – – with Huey coming from behind to overhaul Ms. Bowen — appears to bear this out. Even the perennially liberal L.A. Times referred to the election outcome as a, “major upset“.
CD 36 leans Democratic, but with local Democrats now in disarray, and national conservative and Tea Party groups likely to get involved, Craig Huey has a chance on July 12th to be the Scott Brown of 2011, scoring a special election win of mythic proportions. His radio ads in the primary featured the voice of Rep. Tom McClintock urging voter support for Huey.
……..Locals Saw It Coming
Friends in LA County had told me for weeks that Huey had momentum. Last night they were proven to be correct. Congratulations to all in the Craig Huey campaign.
Here is the running special election vote count as of early this morning:
Janice Hahn… (D) …13,137 … (2)… Craig Huey… (R) …11,648 ……. (3) Debra Bowen (D) ….11,442
Comments 8
This is fantastic! Let’s hope his 2nd place stands, and then the GOP has to get full force behind him against Hahn. Can you imagine a Democrat defeat in Los Angeles? The only other place in CA that would be sweeter is San Francisco. Go Huey!!!
Seriously? The two Democrats combined for more than double the votes that Huey received. Do you believe that those that voted for Bowen are going to vote for Huey? Or that the turnout in a general election won’t tilt even more toward the Democrats?
In a district with 28% Republican registration, the six
GOP candidates last night combined for 41% of the vote.
Plenty of the Bowen supporters will stay home on July 12,
declining to vote for either candidate. That is the problem
now for Hahn.
When a statewide elected official (Secretary of State
Bowen) finishes behind a non-elected local businessman,
that is big news, and an upset.
Those are solid reasons for D7 voter and I to be optimistic.
All media coverage of the race for months has assumed
Hahn and Bowen would finish 1st and 2nd, and GOP
hopefuls were mentioned only as an after thought. As
mentioned above, even the LA Times today calls this
result a “Major Upset“.
The National Jouirnal’s HOTLINE (the bible of daily
national election news) says this, “Republican Craig
Huey appears to have pulled off a surprising upset
Tuesday night, leapfrogging Democrat Debra Bowen
to advance to a July 12 runoff …..”
I think you are engaging in wishful rather than rational thinking, but I guess we will find out on July 13.
If the GOP wins this seat, then the earth-killer asteroid is only weeks away. Maybe days. Those are the odds in this gerrymandered district.
I wish this fellow Huey well. But of course, IF he wins, say good-bye to planet earth.
Well, I suppose we can continue to beat each other up trying to decide whether Steve Danon is better than Pam Slater or Mitt Romney is better than Newt Gingrich. Or we could take that same energy and use it to take advantage of this crack in the Dem facade, however slight that crack might be.
D7
You sound like you actually want to win!
Those who are afraid to win will not.
I hope you and Craig Huey prevail.
Mole,
Absolutely, I do.
Alger and Richard Rider are most likely correct in their views. It’s just that over the past two plus decades I have become increasingly frustrated watching California turn more and more blue while cycle after cycle the same strategies and tactics are rolled out by the reds with little success. I believe it was Albert Einstein who defined that as insanity.
Something needs to change. Otherwise we will move even further into irrelevance.