Democrat Katie Porter unseats two-time incumbent Rep. Mimi Walters in California’s 45th CD

LATimes ^ | November 15, 2018

[SMGFan]

First-time candidate Katie Porter, a UC Irvine law professor and consumer protection attorney, defeated two-time incumbent Rep. Mimi Walters of Laguna Niguel in California’s 45th Congressional District, becoming the first Democrat elected to the seat in the longtime Republican stronghold in Orange County.

Porter ran on a progressive platform, touting her support for universal healthcare and vowing to take corporate money out of politics. Her victory in the wealthy, highly educated district including Tustin and Mission Viejo, which had never sent a Democrat to Congress, signals the shifting political landscape in the county.

[Lurking Libertarian]

Unless you want to believe that a whole lot of progressive types moved into Orange County just in time to vote, since:

I live in Irvine, and the area has become very heavily Asian in a very few years. I suspect that's a part of it. Also, Porter hammered Walters for voting to eliminate the deduction for state and local taxes, a change that really hurts in Orange County with its combintion of high incomes and high state taxes.

[blueplum]

Did OC Repubs not understand the tax break should compensate for any loss of deductions? And, because the states can no longer rely on the government to, in effect, pay for their state taxes, they are forced to become more responsive to their constituents when it comes to levying taxes and what services they provide for those taxes at what cost while at the same time constituents are forced to start scrutinizing what their local and state governments are actually doing with that tax money?

[Lurking Libertarian]

Did OC Repubs not understand the tax break should compensate for any loss of deductions? And, because the states can no longer rely on the government to, in effect, pay for their state taxes, they are forced to become more responsive to their constituents when it comes to levying taxes and what services they provide for those taxes at what cost while at the same time constituents are forced to start scrutinizing what their local and state governments are actually doing with that tax money?

With the Democrats now holding supermajorities in both houses of the State Legislature, state taxes are not going down any time soon.