Campaign

Dems make big play for House in California

by Reid Wilson - 07/31/18 6:00 AM ET

LOS ANGELES – The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) will spend millions of dollars on television advertisements aimed at winning Republican-held seats in historically red Orange County this November, signaling a major play for seats the party must recapture in order to reclaim the House.

The DCCC will announce Tuesday it will spend $3.1 million on television spots in the Los Angeles media market, the most significant part of the committee’s third wave of advertising buys this year.

California has been a major priority for Democrats plotting to recapture the House. Seven of the state’s 14 Republican-held districts voted for Hillary Clinton in 2016, and the party is hoping that President Trump’s dismal approval ratings in the Golden State translate to pickups.

In the Los Angeles area, Democrats have taken aim at seats held by Rep. Ed Royce (R), who is retiring, and Reps. Mimi Walters (R), Steve Knight (R) and Dana Rohrabacher (R). All four districts went for Clinton over Trump in 2016.

The DCCC will also purchase $900,000 in television time in Sacramento and $100,000 in Fresno, money that will be spent against Rep. Jeff Denham (R), who holds a Central Valley district that also went for Clinton. The Fresno market also covers Rep. David Valadao’s (R) district, and Democrats will add in $50,000 in English- and Spanish-language advertisements in Bakersfield, where the other half of Valadao’s voters live.

And Democrats will spend $932,000 in the San Diego media market, where they hope to be able to win retiring Rep. Darrell Issa’s (R) seat.

The $5.1 million spent on California districts makes up about two-thirds of the $7.5 million in reservations the DCCC will begin making Tuesday.

The party plans to spend $927,000 in the Denver market, their latest attempt to knock off perpetually embattled Rep. Mike Coffman (R-Colo.). And they will spend $700,000 in Tucson, Ariz., beginning soon after Labor Day, in an effort to win back a seat held by Rep. Martha McSally (R), who is running for a U.S. Senate seat.

Democrats will buy $500,000 for five weeks of television time in Paducah, Ky., a media market that covers a Southern Illinois district held by Rep. Mike Bost (R). Democrats had previously reserved airtime in the St. Louis market, which also covers Bost’s district.

The party hopes to win back an open seat being vacated by the retiring Rep. Lynn Jenkins (R-Kan.). Democrats blocked off $117,000 for three weeks of advertising in Topeka, and another $133,000 in the Kansas City market, both of which touch Jenkins’s district.

The latest round of advertising buys brings the DCCC’s total investment in television to about $20 million. The party laid out an initial round of $12.6 million in ad buys in May, in high-priority markets like New Hampshire, eastern Iowa, Minneapolis, Philadelphia and Miami. They quietly bought another $9.2 million in airtime earlier this summer.

Candidates, parties and outside groups have invested more than $280 million in television airtime in the battle for control of Congress this year.

Super PACs like the House Majority PAC, which supports Democrats, and the Congressional Leadership Fund, which backs Republicans, have reserved more time than the party committees, hastening a trend toward outside groups’ spending domination that began after the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision.