CA-49: California Democrats have been fretting about the possibility of getting locked out of the November general election thanks to the state's awful top-two primary in a number of House races, particularly those that feature large Democratic fields seeking GOP-held open seats. But a possible solution might be at hand in one such contest. An intriguing story in the Voice of San Diego reports that the SEIU, which is hoping to "publicly pressure those who are trailing in the polls to step down," may have just opened up an escape hatch for Marine veteran Doug Applegate, the 2016 Democratic nominee, to instead run for a spot on the San Diego County Board of Supervisors.
And Applegate, surprisingly, seems to be falling in line. Even though he told BuzzFeed just a few weeks ago that "[e]verybody but me needs to get the hell out of Dodge," it turns out that he just moved into the open board district he could seek. In addition, the only Democrat who'd been running just dropped out. One potential problem, though, is that Applegate may not have established his new residency at least 30 days before the March 9 filing deadline, as required by law. But Applegate's campaign isn't commenting on the story at all, so perhaps some sort of deal is indeed in the works.
That would still leave a fairly large group of Democrats in the race, though: attorneys Christina Prejean and Mike Levin, real estate investor Paul Kerr, and former Hillary Clinton campaign staffer Sara Jacobs. And it's even conceivably that an Applegate departure could make matters worse, since a new poll showed him at the head of the pack, thanks almost certainly to his name ID from his prior bid. On the flipside, though, Applegate's fundraising had been relatively weak, especially compared to Levin and Jacobs (who is also self-funding), so perhaps if he's the one who says goodbye to Dodge, it'd create room for someone else to move up.