Why Ed Laning Will Lose
You'd think that Ed Laning would have a strong chance to unseat Joe Baca in the California 43rd District. Republicans are in a close election and want to make sure that they hold the house. Portions of the 43rd district are heavily Republican. And, most importantly, a local afternoon radio show is spending at least an hour each day campaigning against Joe Baca and David Dreier.
So why will Laning lose? Because the people that count are offering him hardly any support. For example, if you look at his endorsements page, you will see the list of all California Congresspersons that have endorsed Laning. I reproduce the list here in its entirety:
Honorable Darrell E. Issa, Member of Congress, 49th District of California
That's it. No David Dreier. No Gary Miller. No Jerry Lewis. No Mary Bono. Not even a Dana Rohrabacher.
Try going to the California Republican Party website - you won't find any support for non-incumbent candidates.
Try going to the San Bernardino County Republican website, and then go to the page entitled "Republican Party Backs Local Candidates." They're not backing Laning. Oh, I take that back - the home page includes this ringing endorsement of Laning and other candidates:
2004 Candidates
Senate
Bill Jones
Congress
Ed Laning
David Dreier
State Senate
George Runner
Bob Dutton
State Assembly
Alan Wapner
Marge Mendoza-Ware
Bob Huff
Bill Emmerson
Boy, it almost seems like the Republican Party wants to keep the status quo. But they wouldn't want that, would they?
[OE UPDATE 11/1/2004]
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