Abel Maldonado

Greetings from the new 24th Congressional District

October 5, 2011 by Calitics

Dear Calitics community:

After following your smart takes on California and national politics, I thought it was time I joined the conversation.   Here's my first post -- an update on my congressional campaign.

First, thank you for many years of support.  Without the help of grassroots activists, I never would have been elected to Congress.  And I never would have been able to write the Nurse Reinvestment Act to address our nationwide nursing shortage, help get Health Insurance Reform enacted, protect our coastline from more offshore drilling, vote against the Iraq war, stand up for a woman's right to choose and provide more opportunity for the middle class.  I'm proud of my record and can keep going, but my message today is about politics.

This election is different.

There has been a lot of discussion here about the redistricting commission and their new maps.

The new, final map makes my 24th district the toughest Democratic seat to defend in California.  No other congressional district has lost as many registered Democrats as mine. For the past ten years, my district had an 18% Democratic registration advantage.  Now the seat has only 3% more Democrats than Republicans.