For Democrats to achieve a veto-proof “supermajority” in the state Assembly come next Tuesday, they must pick up six seats currently held by a Republican, while holding on to AD30, which is the sole Democratic held seat that is being seriously contested.
Last August, the California Target Book put out it’s Assembly Target List, listing six Republican held districts that the editors believed would be the Democrats’ best opportunities to pick up seats: Assembly District 10 (suburban Sacramento), AD26 (Central Valley), AD15 (East Bay), AD37 (Ventura County), AD78 (inland San Diego County), and AD80 (Imperial County).
From the get-go, the Assembly Democratic leadership and/or independent expenditure committees supporting their agenda put big bucks behind their nominees in four of the above mentioned districts: ALYSON HUBER in AD10, JOAN BUCHANAN in AD15, MARTY BLOCK in AD78, and MANUEL PEREZ in AD80.
Now, it appears they are going after all six.
During the past two weeks, the CA Democratic Party has come in heavily in support of their nominee in AD26, JOHN EISENHUT, contributing more than $300,000 into the Eisenhut campaign, for a total so far of $375,000. A bevy of incumbent Democratic assembly members have also contributed to the Eisenhut campaign.
Now, very late into the cycle, they have put in $100,000 into the campaign of FERIAL MASRY, who is challenging GOP incumbent AUDRA STRICKLAND in AD37, the question being how much more funding is in the pipeline during the final week of the campaign.
They are, of course, also fully funding their nominee, FRAN FLOREZ, in the open AD30 (Central Valley) currently represented by Democratic incumbent Nicole Parra.