National operatives are increasingly worried no Democrat will advance to the general election in a key U.S. House district in Southern California, blaming a self-funding candidate’s attacks on other Democrats for a potential disaster that could harm the party’s chances of winning the U.S. House.
Democratic operatives are pointing fingers at Paul Kerr, a Navy veteran and businessman, ahead of the primary vote on Tuesday. Kerr has spent over $5 million of his own money on the race to replace retiring GOP Rep. Darrell Issa in San Diego County. Despite the heavy spending, he was running fourth among Democrats in two polls of the district released this week, one from the San Diego Union-Tribune and the other from the Democratic firm Tulchin Research.
The problem comes from California’s top-two primary system, where the two leading vote getters in the primary advance to the general election regardless of which party they belong to. While Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton won the 49th District by 7 percentage points in 2016, national operatives now fear a four-way split of Democratic votes could lead to two Republicans advancing to the general election.