美国国家公共电台 NPR Too Many Candidates? Democrats Grapple With Oversupply In Southern California

 

RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:

There's a lot of Democratic enthusiasm about this year's elections, and that means a lot of Democrats² running for Congress across the country. But in Southern California, the party may have too much of a good thing. NPR's Scott Detrow explains.

SCOTT DETROW, BYLINE³: In 2016, Doug Applegate was the only Democrat¹ to run against Republican Darrell Issa in California's 49th congressional district, which stretches north from San Diego. This time, things are a little different.

DOUG APPLEGATE: If you look at San Diego County and Orange County, I think we got 30,000 - excuse me - 30. Thirty candidates running for three open seats and a bunch of incumbents⁴, and it's chaos⁵.

DETROW: Including Applegate, four Democrats are running to replace Issa, who's retiring. And in a nearby Orange County seat, twice as many Democrats have entered the race. Crowded primary races can often point to a big November wave. But in California, they can create a problem. The state's unique primary advances the top two finishers, no matter what party. And many Democrats are like Terra Lawson-Remer. They're worried with fewer Republicans on the ballot⁶, Democrats could be left in the dust.

TERRA LAWSON-REMER: Because they can consolidate⁷ the pie, even if they have a smaller pie, each individual gets a bigger slice of their smaller pie. We split the pie among all our fractious candidates, and no Democrat can get through to November.

DETROW: Lawson-Remer helps run Flip⁸ the 49th, a grassroots superPAC. The group sees the glut⁹ of Democrats as a real problem. Many of the candidates share the same view, which is also a problem. Here's Applegate.

APPLEGATE: Nobody's been able to spend a million bucks¹⁰ and come within 10 points of me.

DETROW: And here's candidate Mike Levin.

MIKE LEVIN: I know we're running the strongest campaign. I know we're viable¹¹. We'll be on the ballot in June. We're going to win and be on that ballot in November, and we're going to win there, as well.

DETROW: Sara Jacobs argues Democrats need younger candidates and women.

SARA JACOBS: We have to give them something exciting to vote for. If we're going to be able to win, we need women and we need young people to come out to the polls.

DETROW: At the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, Drew Godinich is mindful that for years it was hard to find any Democrats to run in Orange County and San Diego.

DREW GODINICH: So I'm always going to take the alternative where we have a number of well-qualified people who are really litigating the case for the first time in these districts.

DETROW: Still, the party may step in at some point to try to clear the field.

GODINICH: At the end of the day, all options are on the table to help ensure that there's a Democrat on the ballot in November.

DETROW: But after this week in Texas, those options may be limited. National Democrats came out hard against one Texas House candidate, Laura Moser, who they viewed as too liberal and unlikely to win this fall. The move backfired. Moser gained momentum¹² and advanced to a runoff, delighting establishment critics like Nina Turner. She runs Our Revolution. That's Bernie Sanders' political action committee.

NINA TURNER: The mainline Democrats, the establishment Democrats of this party cannot continue to put their thumbs and bodies on the scale to get an artificial result.

DETROW: If the DCCC tries to muscle out a candidate in one of California's overcrowded races, the same thing could happen again. So for now, party officials are holding back, at least publicly, and hoping that too much enthusiasm doesn't cost Democrats control of the House. Scott Detrow, NPR News.

1 democrat   

n.民主主义者，民主人士；民主党党员

参考例句：

• The Democrat and the Public criticized each other.民主党人和共和党人互相攻击。
• About two years later,he was defeated by Democrat Jimmy Carter.大约两年后，他被民主党人杰米卡特击败。

2 democrats   

n.民主主义者，民主人士( democrat的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The Democrats held a pep rally on Capitol Hill yesterday. 民主党昨天在国会山召开了竞选誓师大会。
• The democrats organize a filibuster in the senate. 民主党党员组织了阻挠议事。 来自《简明英汉词典》

3 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

4 incumbents   

教区牧师( incumbent的名词复数 )； 教会中的任职者

参考例句：

• In general, incumbents have a 94 percent chance of being reelected. 通常现任官员有94%的几率会再次当选。
• This arangement yields a wonderful gain to incumbents. 这种安排为在职人员提供了意外的得益。

5 chaos   

n.混乱，无秩序

参考例句：

• After the failure of electricity supply the city was in chaos.停电后，城市一片混乱。
• The typhoon left chaos behind it.台风后一片混乱。

6 ballot   

n.（不记名）投票，投票总数，投票权；vi.投票

参考例句：

• The members have demanded a ballot.会员们要求投票表决。
• The union said they will ballot members on whether to strike.工会称他们将要求会员投票表决是否罢工。

7 consolidate   

v.使加固，使加强；(把...)联为一体，合并

参考例句：

• The two banks will consolidate in July next year. 这两家银行明年7月将合并。
• The government hoped to consolidate ten states to form three new ones.政府希望把十个州合并成三个新的州。

8 flip   

vt.快速翻动；轻抛；轻拍；n.轻抛；adj.轻浮的

参考例句：

• I had a quick flip through the book and it looked very interesting.我很快翻阅了一下那本书，看来似乎很有趣。
• Let's flip a coin to see who pays the bill.咱们来抛硬币决定谁付钱。

9 glut   

n.存货过多，供过于求；v.狼吞虎咽

参考例句：

• The glut of coffee led to a sharp drop in prices.咖啡供过于求道致价格急剧下跌。
• There's a glut of agricultural products in Western Europe.西欧的农产品供过于求。

10 bucks   

n.雄鹿( buck的名词复数 )；钱；（英国十九世纪初的）花花公子；（用于某些表达方式）责任v.（马等）猛然弓背跃起( buck的第三人称单数 )；抵制；猛然震荡；马等尥起后蹄跳跃

参考例句：

• They cost ten bucks. 这些值十元钱。
• They are hunting for bucks. 他们正在猎雄兔。 来自《简明英汉词典》

11 viable   

adj.可行的，切实可行的，能活下去的

参考例句：

• The scheme is economically viable.这个计划从经济效益来看是可行的。
• The economy of the country is not viable.这个国家经济是难以维持的。

12 momentum   

n.动力，冲力，势头；动量

参考例句：

• We exploit the energy and momentum conservation laws in this way.我们就是这样利用能量和动量守恒定律的。
• The law of momentum conservation could supplant Newton's third law.动量守恒定律可以取代牛顿第三定律。