House Democrats Struggle As Their Primary Voting Demographics Stay Home

LOS ANGELES (AP) - A handful of Democratic congressional incumbents are fighting for their political lives as a national tide in favor of Republican candidates appeared to reach California, where the GOP hopes to stem a gradual decline within the nation's largest congressional delegation.

Seven races remained too close to call Wednesday.

Democratic Reps. Ami Bera and Scott Peters were narrowly trailing. The freshman lawmakers expected to be in extremely close races, and outside interest groups spent millions of dollars to sway the outcome. Indeed, the Sacramento-area race between Bera and Republican challenger Doug Ose was the House's most expensive in terms of outside spending.

Both Bera and Ose said they anticipated that it could take a few more days before a winner is determined, given the thousands of ballots yet to be counted.

"This race is a long way from over," Bera said in a telephone interview.

The Central Valley was a particularly difficult environment for Democrats. Incumbent Jerry McNerney was narrowly leading in his bid for a fifth term against Republican Tony Amador. In the most surprising of the state's congressional races, Democratic Rep. Jim Costa was trailing by about 700 voters to a 39-year-old dairy farmer, Johnny Tacherra.

Costa outspent his opponent about 3-to-1, and party strategists never cited the race as one they expected to be competitive. Still, Tacherra said his confidence grew in the campaign's final weeks.

He said voters were focused on the impact of a devastating drought and liked that he had "dirt and mud on my boots." He said Costa was able to get Sen. Dianne Feinstein and President Barack Obama to visit the region in February, but people didn't see that the trip led to more water. Many farmers blame environmental protections for worsening the consequences of California's three-year drought.

"We got nothing out of it," Tacherra said. "People said: 'This is enough. We're tired of it.'"

Tacherra also ran in 2012 but failed to advance beyond the primary. This time, as his campaign pointed out, he got no help from national Republicans or the state GOP.

"I just hammered away," Tacherra said.

While Democrats have a substantial statewide voter registration edge, a projected record low turnout hurt their candidates up and down the ballot. Outside interests poured millions of dollars into a number of congressional campaigns, which helped drive Republicans to the polls in certain parts of the state.

Turnout appeared to play a significant role in the Costa race. The incumbent said it was lower than he had anticipated, but he always believed the race would be close. Thousands of ballots have yet to be counted.

One of the most closely watched races was in San Diego, where Republican challenger Carl DeMaio held a very slight edge over Peters, a first-term Democrat.

The Democrats' best hope for picking up a seat was in a San Bernardino County-based district where Democrat Pete Aguilar held a narrow lead over Republican Paul Chabot, a veteran who emphasized his military service but lagged in fundraising.

Democratic groups spent more than $1.5 million to help Aguilar, but GOP groups stayed out. Even so, Aguilar was holding just a 51 percent to 49 percent lead in a district where Democrats had a 6 percentage point edge among registered voters.

Meanwhile, the potentially close races for Republican incumbents never materialized. Most notably, freshman congressman David Valadao secured nearly 60 percent of the vote against Democrat Amanda Renteria in a Central Valley district that trends heavily Democratic. And Republican congressman Jeff Denham won about 56 percent of the vote against Democrat Michael Eggman, an almond and honey farmer.

Allan Hoffenblum, publisher of a political almanac, the California Target Book, said low turnout trumped any particular issues when it came to the GOP's success.

"I guess those really mad at Obama were more motivated to vote than those disappointed in Obama," Hoffenblum said.

Two years ago, for example, 118,373 voters cast a ballot for McNerney and 84,649 voted for Costa. This year, while many absentee votes remain to be counted, just 40,244 people voted for McNerney and 34,471 voted for Costa.

Conservative groups also invested heavily in the campaign's final weeks in a Ventura County race featuring Democratic Rep. Julia Brownley and Republican state lawmaker Jeff Gorell. Brownley was leading by less than 600 votes Wednesday.

In the House, Republicans were close to reaching their largest majority since World War II - 246 seats in 1946, when Harry Truman sat in the White House.

California also had several competitive same-party races, most notably Democratic Rep. Mike Honda versus Democrat Ro Khanna in a Silicon Valley-based district. Honda held a 52.2 percent to 47.8 percent advantage Wednesday.

Meanwhile, Republican Rep. Tom McClintock defeated fellow Republican Art Moore in the state's 4th Congressional District. And in the race to succeed the retiring Buck McKeon in the high desert of Los Angeles County, Steve Knight edged Tony Strickland in a race between Republican candidates who also served in the state Legislature.

Copyright 2014 The Associated Press.