Political Blog: California District 52 House

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5 days after the midterm elections

The winner for California's 52nd congressional district is Democrat Incumbent Scott Peters, beating Carl DeMaio. Peters with about 51.3% of the votes and DeMaio with 48.8%. Peters trailed on election night and took the lead for the first time Thursday. Peters campaign manager MaryAnne Pintar said she was thrilled with the latest update, especially given how rough the election was for Democrats nationally. 

The Associated Press has already declared Peters the winner of the bitterly contested race. Although there is still about 8,000 ballots still to be counted on Monday. 

Scott Peters is ready for the final tally, “It's encouraging. We like the way it's moving, but we'll wait for the results to be counted, but I feel good about the prospect of joining the next congress in January.”

If Peters does indeed become congressman for the 52nd district, the theory of the winning incumbent will be supported by this race. Also, Peters will be one of the few Democrats that return to office, seeing as nationwide the Republicans have gained control of congress after the midterm elections.  

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Too close to Call

As of Wednesday morning California's 52nd congresisional race results are still to close to call. DeMaio has a close lead of less than 1%. With the mail and provision votes to be counted, Scott peters still has a small chance to win. 

If Carl DeMaio wins the race, he will be the first openly gay Republican in congress. DeMAio is still focusing on telling the people about the importance it is to focus on working together in congress, rather than focusing on personal drama that people are trying to stir up.

Incumbent Scott Peters highlighted his fiscally responsible record and pointing legislating view on health care and the economy. 

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The night before election day! Still looks unclear who will win. 

Will Incumbent Scott Peters stay in office, or will Republican Carl Demaio take his place? 

The election will probably be determined by only a handful of voters. As mentioned in the video if more seniors come to vote DeMaio will have the advantage, and if younger voters show up, Peters will take the lead.

Because DeMaio seems to have an overwhelmingly advantage in fiscal responsibility, people seem to prefer him over Peters, who has a smaller advantage in other issues like integrity or the ability to reach to other parties.

In the end it still looks like it will be a tight race. 

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California’s 52nd congressional race is still has a very unclear outcome. The race has now become one of the most expensive races in the nation, with congressional parties contributing heavily to the campaign.

Regardless of the candidates views on important issues, in the end it will come down to which party turns out at the polls since there is such an even divide in registered voters.

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Money is key in any congressional race. In this case, as seen above, Incumbent Scott Peters has raised a total of $2.5M, while Republican Carl DeMaio has $2.2M. Scott peters is said to be the 6th richest man in congress. That could affect the election because Peters has more resources in terms of campaign money. But, could it be that because of the scandalous accusations against Carl DeMaio's supposed sexual harassment, DeMaio could lose financial support; thus tipping the race in Peter's favor. 

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What congressional race doesn't have some drama. Both candidates continue to sling mud at each other in order to try and cripple their chances of winning. When it comes to social issues both candidates seem to agree on what action to take. The outcome of this race will be highly anticipated this fall.

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Who will take office?

California's 52nd Congressional district is one of the few districts that isn't highly split. The voters here are 34% Republican 32% Democrat and 29% Independent. San Diego voters could potentially give the  GOP another seat in the republican controlled house. 

Scott peters regularly tries to accuse DeMaio as a tea party extremist, while Carl DeMaio continues to accuse Peters as a congressman who spends money recklessly. 

The race polls show that these two congressmen are neck in neck for the elections in November. There might even be a chance that republican Carl DeMaio will beat incumbent Scott Petters.

(Source: realclearpolitics.com)

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Gay Republican Candidate accusted of sexual harassment

Carl DeMaio's former campaign policy director is accusing the candidate of sexual harassment, even saying DeMaio masturbated in front of him. DeMaio  denies this, saying they're the cover story of a plagiarist and suspected criminal. 

Todd Bosnich who is also an openly gay republican is accusing DeMaio of sexual harassment, saying that the incidents had happened over a few months. 

However when Bosnich confronted DeMaio, the result was Bosnich's termination from the campaign, he was also asked to sign a non disclosure statement in exchange for $50,000 (hush money). 

Carl DeMaio defends himself by saying that the allegations are false, and that instead is just a cover story for Bosnich to hide his plagiarism. According to DeMaio Bosnich is responsible for taking a report from the National Journal and taking credit for it. 

In the end there is no real proof of the said allegations from both accusing parties, but the fact is that there is a lot of messy drama going on behind the Republican campaign. With this new drama, there might be some hesitations from the voters that might cause DeMaio potential votes. 

For more info visit CNN

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Carl DeMaio appeared on KUSI's evening news June 1 to discuss his platform of reform in his race for Congress. The fiscal reformer who produced amazing results in San Diego wants to try his hand at reforming Washington.

DeMaio talks about the polarization of congress because of the political labels. He wants democrats to work together alongside republicans to get problems solved. Carl DeMaio encourages democrat voters to support him, and to support his ideas for what he can bring to congress. He mentions it is important to work together and to not allow party labels get in the way of that. 

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Scott Works to help local Veterans

Congressman Scott Peters is trying to help recently discharged veterans transition into civilian life through the "Military Transition Support Project". This project basically helps individuals who have just left the base or the boat, by helping them with employment or if they need jobs skills they will be provided with training for that. 

Almost 15,000 veterans a year are sent home, and half of them will stay in San Diego. Peters hopes that this will be a national model, where businesses take advantage of the hard working men and women who have left the military or navy and are ready to work hard and come back to society. 

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Yes, Carl Demaio is a gay republican. However, he is not defined by his sexuality, it is only a secondary detail. If DeMaio unseats Democratic Rep. Scott Peters, he could become the first openly gay Republican to be voted into Congress. Though he featured his partner in a campaign advertisement, he never really mentions being gay in his speeches. He supports marriage equality, and says he is prepared to fully challenge any conservative when they are being ignorant.  

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Carl DeMaio, Balancing the Budget

"I authored the plan to save San Diego from bankruptcy and implemented reforms with votes from both political parties. I'm going to Washington to do the same." --Carl DeMaio

A lot of previous politicians have campaigned to take action on DC's spending problem, yet when they go into office little is done about it. Carl DeMaio was a city council man and he reviewed the city budget and proposed new ways to use taxpayers money to benefit the public. He plans on saving taxpayers money and providing more services, he has done it for San Diego and he plans on doing it for the Nation. The nation is already at 17 trillion dollars in debt, and so congressman DeMaio plans on lowering that number. 

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Scott Peters is a House Rep who looks to work with other members to get legislation going, he was graded by GovTrack.us on how many bills he cosponsored.

Scott Peters himself introduced 19 bills to the house, among one of them that included the Shelter Our Servicemembers Act, which was first introduced on April 23 to provide a two-year pilot program of grants to nonprofit organizations to provide elderly homeless veterans with non-transitional housing. 

More on Scott Peter's "Report Card" can be found here 

https://www.govtrack.us/congress/members/scott_peters/412523/report-card/2013

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"Fair" Scott Peters campaign add published September 15, 2014. 

Democrat Scott Peters view of women's right to have equal pay rate as men, and mentions how Carl DeMaio is against the equal pay.

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Battle Ground For district 52

California's 52nd Congressional state is located towards the south, including parts of San Diego County. California, among two other states, uses a blanket primary, also known as a  primary election, that takes place before the general election to decide the running candidates for the general election. 

This year the two candidates who advanced to the general election are, Incumbent Scott peters (Democrat) and Carl DeMaio (Republican).

The results for the primary election were very close, Scott Peters won 42.3% of the votes while Carl DeMaio was Close Behind with 35.5%. Because Republican candidates split nearly 58% of the vote in the primary blanket, it is likely that Scott Peters will face a very competitive race against Carl DeMaio.