House Omnibus

Jim Geraghty has another one of his patented omnibus analyses of the House races rated as toss-ups. There are no fewer than 117 (!) races in Geraghty's list. Feel free to click over to graze, but I will highlight the California races:

CA-11: Survey USA puts David Harmer ahead of incumbent Democrat Jerry McNerney by 6.

CA-20: The DCCC is worried enough about Republican Andy Vidak’s chances against incumbent Democrat Jim Costa to start spending money here.

CA-47: Incumbent Democrat Loretta Sanchez is tied with Republican Van Tran, or as she prefers to call her opponent, “the Vietnamese.”

CA-51: Perhaps the toughest GOP candidate of the cycle, Nick Popaditch, vs. incumbent Democrat Bob Filner in a district with high unemployment and serious housing-bubble fallout, and the polls say . . . nothing. This is one of the few interesting House districts with not a single poll released.

Only 4?! How depressing. Also, I see that Star Parker doesn't appear to be competitive enough to rate a mention, which is also too damn bad. Compton needs another round of progressivism like I need two more years of Nancy Pelosi as my congressman.

Still, the four races Geraghty highlights are worth paying attention to, inasmuch as there are so few "swing" districts in California. (surely California's contemporary take on the rotten borough is one of the symptoms of its decline). David Harmer for one is a solid Reagan conservative running in Richard Pombo's old district. Nick Popaditch is a Marine with an eyepatch who liberated Baghdad, and is the sort of person who has been sorely lacking from American politics. Best of all is Van Tran who has been running an unexpectedly strong race against Loretta Sanchez, one of the worst liberals in the state - a real modern day pink lady and an idiot besides.

Reading through Geraghty's list, it's a little nervous-making to see how many races are dead heats, within the margin of error, or (like Popaditch) not polled at all. Democrats have a depressed base, but they will still have their buses full of union rowdies, border crossing college kids, and "nod & wink" illegal alien voters, plus a Justice Department - not to mention news media - that will hype every polling irregularity they can find. Conservatives will only have each other. All I can say is, you'd better be registered to vote because no one is going to help you protect your right to do so.