Dear Calitics community:

I wanted to give you an update on my congressional race.

On Monday, the LA Times reported some good news about California’s redrawn Congressional districts.  According to the Times, Republican “party leaders aren’t happy about the situation.  Some say privately that the GOP could lose up to five of its 19 California congressional seats.”

However, the Times also quotes David Wasserman, editor of the nonpartisan Cook Political Report, who said “there are some Republican opportunities” as well.  Specifically, Republican strategists have targeted my race because Congressional District 24 “has been made more compact and more evenly divided between Democrats and Republican voters.”  LA Times link

Without question, my district is the toughest Democratic-held seat to defend in California.  The district has the slimmest margin of Democratic voters in the state.

During my time in Congress, I have developed strong relationships with the residents of my district.  But the Republican playbook is to “nationalize” this race and try to distract voters from my solid record working as their representative in Washington and providing effective constituent services.  

Already Karl Rove’s SuperPAC Crossroads GPS has run a false TV ad criticizing me for supporting Healthcare reform.  The National Republican Campaign Committee also ran a TV ad against me in the district that the Washington Post factchecker debunked, giving it “4 Pincocchios!”

There are at least three Republicans who have indicated they may run.  Millionaire Abel Maldonado is running and has already invested $250,000 of his own money in the race.  Tea Party favorites Tom Watson and Chris Mitchum are also running and they tied for first place in a recent straw poll, showing their ability to energize the Republican base.

Meanwhile, I’m not taking any chances.  Our experienced campaign manager, Kris Pratt, is on the ground now and we’re staffing up our finance and field teams so we can be ready for 2012.

I know there’s a big bulls-eye on my race, so I’m reaching out to you and progressive activists across California.  I hope you’ll play a big role in my campaign.  You can reach us at [email protected] or get involved at www.cappsforcongress.com

We need your help to organize in my district and raise money so we can communicate with voters.  We need to win seats like CD24 to take back the U.S. House of Representatives.

So I hope you’ll join me in 2012 and help us keep California’s beautiful Central Coastal district blue.

Thanks, and happy holidays.

Lois

www.cappsforcongress.com