Amid all of the fevered gossip about how San Diego Democratic Mayor Bob Filner’s rapid accumulation of sexual harassment accusations might destroy the Democratic party forever (no word yet on how multiple Republican governors cheating on their families will impact their family values platform), an ironic point has been raised at MSNBC.
Who will take Filner’s seat? Filner’s resignation might cost the GOP a Congressional candidate, Jessica Taylor posited. Follow that logic through and Filner’s expected resignation and the subsequent special election (all party primary and then a run off) might just cost the Republican Party a House seat.
Republicans have been counting on Republican Carl DeMaio to take back the seat that Democrat Scott Peters won in 2012.
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But if DeMaio, who is a favorite in the Congressional race against incumbent Democratic Rep. Scott Peters according to early polling by the NRCC, decides to run for the Mayor’s office, then the GOP is without a strong nominee for a seat that they felt confident they could win back.
DeMaio lost his run for Mayor against Filner by a 5-point margin in 2012.
Republicans are planning on winning this Congressional seat back, especially since Peters took it in a presidential election year from Brian Bilbray, who had held the seat since 2006. However, DeMaio seems rather dangerously focused on that Mayoral seat, working hard to collect signatures to recall Filner.
Republicans are relying on Democrats not turning out for the midterms and have written off the “Democratic wave” of 2012 as an Obama coattails effect. (They never follow this thought through – if the President is that popular, why make hating him the centerpiece of their platform?)
But the Filner resignation has Republicans nervous. NBC News reported Friday that sources told them that both the National Republican Congressional Committee and House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) are working to urge him to stay in the Congressional race.
DeMaio, who served one term as a member of the San Diego City Council from 2008 to 2012 and has been labeled a “new generation Republican” (perhaps because he is openly gay and keeps warning the GOP to lay off the social issues), makes a lot of noise about being “nonpartisan” – a favorite term of Republicans, who can’t seem to open their mouths without rabidly attacking Democrats and Obama.
But DeMaio is another Republican who views the healthcare law as a partisan issue, and seems actively focused on killing support for it.
Republicans are making hay over Filner, but they conveniently forget that Bilbray took the seat over from Randy ‘Duke’ Cunningham, a Republican who resigned after pleading guilty to accepting $2.4 million in bribes. They also forget that former Republican Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger was notorious — prior to the party choosing him to run — for sexual harassment, among other rumored “indiscretions” committed at Gold’s Gym and on various film sets. Many of these allegations came to light just prior to the 2003 election. Gropergate ringing a bell?
Glass houses, people.
Republicans can’t afford to lose any House seats, even though they thought they built a firewall with their gerrymandering. It turns out that their do-nothing-but-obstruct-and-destroy policy isn’t very popular — shocking — and now Republicans are secretly very worried that what looked like a sure thing in 2014 is no longer so sure. They’ve got to keep DeMaio in line and focused on that congressional seat instead of the dangling fruit of an executive position that would allow him to stay home all year.
How ironic would it be for the GOP to lose a House seat because a Democrat resigned?
Image: Democratic Rep. Scott Peters
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