GOP lawmaker files paperwork in wrong district

Rep. Ed Royce (R-Calif.) is running for reelection — but he might want to check where he’s putting up his yard signs.

{mosads}Royce’s campaign accidentally filed a statement of candidacy with the Federal Election Commission infor California’s 40th Congressional District. That’s one district away from the 39th that he represents.

His campaign corrected the paperwork after The Sacramento Bee pointed out the error, though it points out the original Bee report that he’d filed to run in the wrong district was off the mark.

“It is impossible for a federal candidate to file for reelection in any California district until February 10 when the Secretary of State opens the period for declarations of candidacy,” his campaign says in a statement. “The document mentioned was not, and could not be, an official declaration of candidacy but was instead a routine, financial disclosure statement for a fundraising committee based in Virginia in which a staff member made a typographical error. Representative Royce looks forward to filing his official declaration of candidacy in the 39th district.”

Royce represented a vastly different version of the 40th District in the 1990s. But running in the current one might not be as easy: Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard’s (D-Calif.) Latino-majority district has a nearly 50-point Democratic registration advantage.

Royce has a powerful perch in the House as chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee.

This post was updated at 12:55 p.m.