GOP Prevails in Four of Seven Target CA House Races

WFB: IRVINE, Calif.—While California continued trending bluer Tuesday, the state did not provide the seven solid pick-ups Democratic leaders had predicted despite the massive spending by outside groups and unprecedented Democratic registration and get-out-the-vote drives across the state.

As of early Wednesday morning, Democrats appeared to be holding on to victories in three out of seven highly targeted California congressional districts that voted for Hillary Clinton in 2016.

The mixed result came after Democratic and Republican outside groups spent more than $67.5 million in the general election in those battleground districts, more than doubling election independent expenditures for California’s House races in the 2016 election.

For more than a year, Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.) had claimed that the path to Democrats flipping the House would run through California.

In reality, Fox News, followed by the other major networks, began calling the House majority win for the Democrats early in the evening West-Coast time, before the first official votes in those races even began being counted in California.

Several hours later, California’s mixed results began to take shape, with one more seat solidly in the blue column than Democrats had before election night and two more appearing to have flipped to the Democrats. Although with victory margins so slim, recounts in several of the races appear likely.

In the seat Rep. Darrell Issa (R., Calif.) left open by his retirement, environmental lawyer Mike Levin held a four-point lead over former state legislator and tax board member Diane Harkey, with 66 percent of the vote counted.  more here