GOP Ditches Andal

Politico reports “GOP ditches recruits to save incumbents” – Andal being dumped to save Lungren, Rohrabacher, Dreier and Bilbray?

Press Memo: October 15, 2008

Politico reports “GOP ditches recruits to save incumbents” – Andal being dumped to save Lungren, Rohrabacher, Dreier and Bilbray?

With Halloween right around the corner, it looks like the Republicans’ worst political nightmare is coming true. According to a report in Politico , campaign funds that national Republicans had set aside for “prized recruits” like Dean Andal “will likely go instead to protect GOP incumbents who once looked like locks for reelection.”

Among the Republicans reported to be “fighting for their political lives” are four long-time members of California’s Republican Congressional Delegation: Dan Lungren, Dana Rohrabacher, David Dreier and Brian Bilbray. According to Politico, the news is especially bad for Lungren, who according to private polling leads his Democratic opponent Bill Durston by only three percentage points.

No matter how the GOP may spin it, it is never, ever a good sign when you have to spend precious campaign resources to protect incumbents who together have served nearly 70 years in Congress.

And looking further down the ballot – what does the fact that entrenched congressional Republicans are hanging on for dear life say about for California Republicans’ odds in key legislative races?

The Assembly districts within and surrounding Lungren’s congressional district (AD 10 and AD 26) will certainly benefit from voters’ desire for change and an end to politics as usual. The two Democratic Assembly candidates – Alyson Huber in the 10th and John Eisenhut in the 26th – offer new ideas and fresh perspectives that should carry them to victory in an election year when change is voters’ top priority. And with the other GOP members of Congress struggling to hold on, the same scenario is likely to benefit Democrats in legislative races near their districts.

A nightmare for the Republicans indeed.