CA-48: While GOP Rep. Dana Rohrabacher represents the Newport Beach-area seat where Arrested Development takes place, there may just not be any more money in the banana stand for Vladimir Putin's favorite congressman. Even though his ancestrally red district flipped from 55-43 Romney to 48-46 Clinton, Rohrabacher doesn't seem to be taking his re-election campaign incredibly seriously, since he raised just $182,000 during the third quarter of 2017.
Rohrabacher did get an additional $75,000 in restitution from his former treasurer, who pled guilty in January to embezzling $300,000 from Rohrabacher's campaign. You'll find that money, as well an additional $14,000, under "transfers" in our fundraising roundup; Daily Kos Elections always separates money transferred from other political committees from the amount raised from donors. Rohrabacher had $600,000 on-hand at the end of September, which isn't nothing, but it's considerably smaller than what many vulnerable House Republicans already have available to spend. Rohrabacher also hasn't had a remotely tough race since 2008, so he had years to build up a considerably larger war-chest if he felt like it. (Though to be completely fair, he was embezzled.)
And unlike most California Republican House members, Rohrabacher does face an intra-party opponent with access to some money. When businessman Stelian Onufrei announced in July, he said he'd self-fund $500,000, and he's so far thrown down $200,000. Onufrei, who raised almost nothing from donors, had $167,000 in the bank. However, it's possible that Onufrei will end up being the source of much Democratic angst over the coming months. In California, all the candidates from all parties run together on a single primary ballot, and the top-two vote-getters advance to the November general election—regardless of what party they belong to. Several Democrats are running, and it's possible that they'll split the blue vote enough to allow both Rohrabacher and Onufrei to make it to the general.
And what of the many Democrats running here? Hans Keirstead, a prominent stem cell scientist who entered the race in June, raised $276,000 during the third quarter. While Keirstead has said he won't self-fund his bid, he also threw in another $50,000 of his own money, and he had $302,000 in the bank. National Democrats haven't formally taken sides here, but DCCC chair Ben Ray Lujan raised eyebrows when he donated to Keirstead in the previous quarter.
Real estate company owner Harley Rouda was the first noteworthy Democrat to jump in back in March, and while he only raised $107,000 for the third quarter, he threw down $175,000 of his own money; Rouda had $373,000 in the bank on Sept. 30. Michael Kotick, a former Nestlé executive who announced in July, only raised $106,000 during his opening quarter, and he self-funded another $131,000, leaving him with $104,000 on-hand.
Attorney Omar Siddiqui, a Democrat we hadn't previously mentioned, jumped in back in July, and while he only raised $67,000 from donors, he self-funded another $256,000 and had $309,000 in the bank. Siddiqui, who was a Republican until 2009 and identifies as a Reagan Democrat, has worked with the FBI and CIA to improve relationships with local Muslim residents. Siddiqui lives in Fullerton, well outside this seat, and says he won't run for Congress in the 39th District because he supports local GOP Rep. Ed Royce.
Siddiqui's law firm is based in Costa Mesa in the 48th, and he says he "spend[s] every day, in to the wee-hours of the night, here," adding, "CD48 to me is what Gotham City is to Batman." However, back in July, Siddiqui was reluctant to say more about Rohrabacher other than he had "somewhat controversial with his ties to Russia." Sorry, but Batman was a whole lot more critical of the Penguin when he ran against him for mayor of Gotham back in the 1960s show. (We didn't plan to throw another program into this, but Siddiqui made it too easy.) Finally, architect Laura Oatman raised just $41,000 and had only $57,000 on-hand.