After months of rumors, it appears that Sacramento County Sheriff, Scott Jones, will be the official Republican challenger to Congressman Ami Bera. Jones will supposedly make this official next week. He was recruited by the NRCC.
My thought is that if NRCC isn’t ready to spend at least five million on the race that Jones shouldn’t bother. Congressional Republicans have lots of first term people that need defending so why get involved in CD-7? Unless they’ve calculated that running Jones will pin down lots of Dem money that can’t be used elsewhere this doesn’t make much sense.
Bera has proved to be a prolific fundraiser and formidable candidate. Plus Republicans have run lousy campaigns against him.
Doug Ose lost last time as soon as he ceded Elk Grove to Bera and chose not to put a headquarters in the south county. This was about March of 2014. The campaign was statistically doomed from that decision forward.
I do think Jones could win but the demographic winds for keeping the seat are not favorable. Too keep the seat, Jones will have to do something no Republican has done in decades, use his office and influence to build the party. I wish Jones all the best in his campaign.