CA-31: House Majority PAC Congratulates Pete Aguilar
November 7, 2014
Washington, D.C. – House Majority PAC congratulates Representative-Elect Pete Aguilar on his election in California’s Thirty-first Congressional District.
“Voters in the 31st District rejected Paul Chabot’s extreme Tea Party agenda and selected Pete Aguilar, who will prove an effective representative of his constituents,” said Ali Lapp, Executive Director of House Majority PAC. “House Majority PAC was proud to play a part in making sure Aguilar will have the chance to do great work in Washington.”
President Obama won an overwhelming 57% of the vote in California’s 31st district, yet the district has been represented by far-right Republican Congressman Gary Miller, partly due to poorly organized efforts to defeat him in 2012. In 2013, Miller announced he would not run again and the June 3rd jungle primary was a hotly contested five-way race with Aguilar and Chabot advancing, but no candidate receiving over 30% of the vote.
House Majority PAC knew this was one of the best pickup opportunities of the country, but polling showed the only way to win was if we motivated Democrats to turnout and vote. Through polling we identified a universe of voters who we believed would vote for Aguilar but were less likely to turn out in a mid-term election. To get the attention of these voters, we ran an extensive mail program that focused on targeted issues, directed at core Democrats and Latinos. We also coordinated messaging with the League of Conservation Voters who ran a door-to-door canvass program largely directed at our same mail universe.
With polls showing this a winnable race, but very close throughout the fall, House Majority PAC went on the air with one ad in the Los Angeles cable market for the final three weeks before Election Day defining Chabot as untrustworthy and out of touch at a cost of $460k. Finally HMP also sent a series of mail pieces to independent voters outlining Chabot’s harmful record on education and his adherence to the extreme Tea Party agenda.
HMP spent the following in this district: $680,770
HMP aired the following ads in this district:
“Everyone”: http://www.