President Trump’s shocking performance in Helsinki couldn’t have come at a worse time for Vladimir Putin’s favorite Congressman — Comrade Dana Rohrabacher in CD-48. The LA Times is reporting that Democrat Harley Rouda holds a narrow lead over Comrade Dana in a race Republicans in OC have said wouldn’t be close.
From the story:
Rouda, who barely squeaked through the June primary to emerge as Rohrabacher’s opponent, has a 46%-43% edge among potential voters, the poll found — a nominal lead well within the survey’s margin of error.
The survey by Monmouth University is the first public, nonpartisan poll of the district since the June primary. The poll is one of a series that Monmouth, in West Long Branch, N.J., is conducting of key congressional races nationwide. The nonpartisan survey has compiled one of the country’s best records for accuracy in recent years.
Rohrabacher draws his strongest support from conservatives, fellow Republicans and white voters who did not graduate from college, a group that makes up just under one-third of the electorate, the poll found. Whites without college degrees favored Rohrabacher 55% to 34%, with 11% undecided.
Rouda gets his biggest backing from women, voters younger than 50 and non-whites, who make up about one-third of the electorate in the district, according to the poll.
But minority voters also showed somewhat less interest in the election than did whites, noted Patrick Murray, the director of the Monmouth poll. Just over half the nonwhite voters in the poll said they were following the congressional race “not too closely at all,” compared with 42% of whites without college degrees and 32% of whites who graduated from college.
“A key for Rouda is motivating this part of his base,” Murray said of the nonwhite voters surveyed.
About 35% of voters in the 48th Congressional District, which runs along the Orange County coast, are whites with a college degree. They divide evenly between the two candidates, the poll found.
Since Rohrabacher once worked for President Ronald Reagan, once has to wonder what his old boss would think of the glowing defense of the Putin regime in Russia by Dana. A rebuke? A firing? There’s a reason Dana’s running behind after so long. If he’s counting on his base coming out to vote, it looks like the Baugh voters are moving to Rouda as Democratic unity in CD-48 takes hold.