What Does Grace Napolitano's Retirement Announcement Mean?
This morning, Los Angeles area Congresswoman Grace Napolitano, at 86 the oldest member of the House, announced that she would be retiring at the end of the current session. This wasn’t unexpected news— although it’s been expected for the better part of a decade now. The San Gabriel Valley, southeastern L.A. County district is safely blue. The PVI is D+15. Biden beat Trump 64.5% to 33.4%. The partisan lean of the Latino-majority district is a nice healthy D+29 and borders on my own, including Azusa, Baldwin Park, Covina, Duarte, Irwindale, La Verne and San Dimas as well as parts of Glendora, Industry and Monrovia. Voter registration:
Democrats: 48.6%
No party preference: 23.3%
Republicans: 21.5%
Seema Mehta and Hannah Wiley reported that “It’s a rare open seat that offers ambitious legislative and local elected officials a higher perch— even though it won’t affect control of a narrowly divided Congress… Three Democrats have already opened campaign accounts to run: [sexual predator] state Sen. Bob Archuleta (D-Pico Rivera), Citrus Community College Trustee Mary Ann Lutz and Baldwin Park Planning Commissioner Ricardo Vazques, according to the Federal Election Commission. After she announced her retirement, Napolitano endorsed Archuleta, who was at the Saturday event.”
Archuleta is a conservative Democrat who takes special interest money and has a disgraceful “D” grade from the Courage Campaign. Another local state senator who’s about to jump in, Susan Rubio, is even worse— with an “F” grade and a member of the state legislature’s Hall of Shame. One of the most corrupt Democrats in state government, she’s widely considered even worse than Rudy Salas and Adam Gray, who ran with DCCC support in blue California districts last cycle and lost to Republicans— and are running again this cycle! Rubio is more Republican-like than either of them… and they are considered the bottom of the Sacramento barrel!
There is also a threat that former conservative Congressman Gil Cisneros, a lottery winner who bought a [different] congressional seat in 2018, spending $9,252,762 of his winnings, and 2 years later lost it to the same Republican he beat in 2018. The district voted for Biden the same day it voted to dump Cisneros.
Grotesquely corrupt conservative Democrats running in California is a real problem— and very much why the GOP now controls the House of Representatives. Even when these shitty candidates manage to win, they inevitably disappoint and disillusion Democratic voters. Among the very worst Democrats in Congress are 11 Californians (with their ProgressivePunch scores):
Jim Costa- F
Scott Peters- F
Ami Bera- F
Raul Ruiz- F
Julia Brownley- F
Pete Aguilar- F
Jimmy Panetta- D
Lou Correa- D
John Garamendi- D
Salud Carbajal- D
Mike Thompson- D
A few days ago, the AP ran a story about one of them, worthless Democratic leader and cocaine freak Pete Aguilar, a former Jerry Lewis machine functionary who decided to call himself a Democrat— albeit a very conservative one— and stumbled into the House Democratic Caucus chair job. Michael Blood, the AP writer, referred to him as a kingmaker and noted that control of the House next year hinges on “his” California. Aguilar’s political thinking goes no further than a “lesser-of-two-evils” approach— Democrats may suck… but look how much worse the Republicans are. Voters are sick of this crap.
A string of California House districts has proved volatile in recent elections, spotlighting their importance to both parties as they look to control the chamber. Democrats snatched seven seats from Republicans in 2018, then Republicans seized four from Democrats in 2020.
In the 2022 elections, Republicans gained one seat, from 11 to 12, while Democrats dropped to 40 seats from 42, after California lost a House seat in reapportionment after the 2020 census. Overall, the state dropped to 52 districts from 53.
Aguilar’s top targets are five districts that Joe Biden won in 2020 in the presidential contest that are now held by Republicans. “We are going to win back the House,” Aguilar told reporters on a recent stop in Los Angeles.
…Aguilar sees former President Trump as an asset for Democratic candidates, should he win the GOP nomination.
“I don’t think there could be a more extreme person running on the Republican side than Donald Trump,” Aguilar said. “I think that’s going to turn off moderate, independent voters, and I think that’s going to lead to better Democratic turnout.”
Biden remains popular in California given its Democratic tilt, even as his national approval rating sits at a lackluster 41%, according to polling from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. And Democratic turnout typically surges in presidential election years.
…Both parties are vowing to invest millions of dollars to sway races and recruit candidates that fit the political complexion of districts. The GOP picked up seats in 2020 with a slate of candidates that was strikingly diverse for a party that remains predominantly white: two South Korean immigrants, both women, and two men who are sons of immigrant parents from Mexico and Portugal.
Those four districts remain targets for Democrats: Reps. Young Kim and Michelle Steel, anchored in Orange County, Rep. Mike Garcia in a district north of Los Angeles and Rep. David Valadao in the Central Valley.
Democrats also want to pick off GOP Rep. John Duarte in the farm belt, who prevailed by fewer than 600 votes in 2022.