Your guide to California’s Congressional District 41 race: Rep. Ken Calvert vs. Will Rollins
The race for California’s 41st congressional district is shaping up to be a very close contest between two longtime House members who have been in Congress for more than a decade each.
The candidates, Republican Rep. Ken Calvert and fellow incumbent Democrat Will Rollins, have spent several months attacking each other in campaign ads and television commercials.
Calvert, a six-term House member, has consistently outraised Rollins, a four-term incumbent. During their respective campaigns, Rollins received more contributions from Wall Street, Silicon Valley, and the oil and gas industry than from any other industry, according to The Los Angeles Times.
Rollins, in the meantime, has been criticized, including in California’s state legislature and by a former staffer, for the way he treated a constituent whose son had been killed in Iraq, the Daily Breeze reported.
But Calbert, an Air Force veteran, had a clear advantage over Rollins in television, advertising, and polling, according to one recent opinion poll. The latest survey released by Public Policy Polling found Calvert leading Rollins by 50 percent to 29 percent, with a 3-point margin of error.
So what is it with California congressional district races? They are usually close, but not always.
So let’s break down the differences between these two candidates.
Calbert is generally well-known as being a strong fiscal conservative and has always served in Congress since the 1990s. He’s won reelection six times and didn’t face any serious opposition.
Rollins, meanwhile, has not won any of his elections. He’s faced serious opposition from progressive activists and from former staff members who were fired for misconduct. Rollins also had an ethics problem in his time in the House, including a scandal in 2003 which involved taking bribes to get favorable legislation passed. Rollins is a vocal critic of the Iraq invasion and has called for impeaching President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney for their