The Daily "I Love Debbie Cook" Pilot?

I clicked on the Daily Pilot today and went down the headlines and saw:

"Huntington mayor wants to get rep. talking"

and did a double take...

Was I reading the Huntington Beach Independent, the Pilot's Huntington Beach counterpart?

No...the Daily Pilot is just reprinting the same article in both papers... (here and here).

I guess they just can't love Debbie Cook enough huh?

At least the Daily Pilot's version didn't include the picture of Debbie with Huntington Beach spelled incorrectly in the caption...unless of course Huntignton Beach is a new part of Huntington Beach...

Let's see...Congressman Rohrabacher's 46 District doesn't include Newport Beach anymore, so I shouldn't be writing about it, but when our local (and Costa Mesa's local) newspaper decides it wants to write about her four times in February (here, here, here and here), I can't help but put in my two cents...

I bet Congressman Campbell's Democrat opponent Steve Young wishes he had that kind of Newport Beach coverage.

Anyway, everything I hear about Mayor Cook is good, she seems like a great person and a great Democrat, the main issue (actually two):

1. Party Registration - Mayor Cook might do well if every Democrat and every Decline to State voter in the entire District voted for her.

Republicans: 132,902 46.5%
Democrats: 83,285 29.2%
Decline-to-State: 56,160 19.7%

but that leads to the second issue.

2. Huntington Beach isn't the only City in the District - in addition to HB; Costa Mesa, Fountain Valley, Seal Beach, Avalon, Rancho Palos Verdes, Rolling Hills, Palos Verdes Estates and Rolling Hills Estates as well as portions of Long Beach, Westminster, Santa Ana and San Pedro are in the 46 CD.

This means she's going to have to raise very big dollars to get her name into those other cities on such a familiar level with Dana's.

Is there big money to be raised? If the registration gap was a bit more narrow, perhaps.

But with a such a large spread...maybe not. Ask Steve Young how easy it is to raise money in a very Republican district. And I don't know how much the Democrat Party will be willing to pour into this race either, since there might be more contested seats to go after.

Anyway, Congressman Rohrabacher is not going to take anything for granted and will run a very strong campaign against a formidable opponent.

But, the Daily Pilot (and the LA Times and the Huntington Beach Independent) should just endorse Mayor Cook already...either that or at least pretend like they like Steve Young half as much...

Updated 3:11 pm - Two more thoughts (you'll have to excuse my late thoughts, I've been blindingly sick this week).

1. I'm not too sure Mayor Cook thinks she can win according to this excerpt from the Daily Pilot article,

"Cook called the run worthwhile even if she loses."

She's already looking for the bright side if she loses? The Daily Pilot has only written 4 articles...all positive.

and

2. If it were possible for a very popular Democrat Mayor of a major City within a very Republican Congressional District to take on an incumbent, don't you think the perennial Directly-Elected (Huntington Beach, like Newport Beach, rotates their Mayors) Emperor of Irvine, who also was a 1992 Democratic candidate for President of the United States, Larry Agran would have made it a go by now?

But he knows that the numbers (registration) were never there.

Perhaps Mayor Cook is getting her name out there in anticipation of a Democratic-leaning redistricting in 2011?

Ok...end of thought.