Election 2018: Russia? Immigration? End of the world? 48th House race features all that plus Rep. Dana Rohrabacher and Harley Rouda

It’s the second most expensive House race in the nation and perhaps the most interesting.

The contest for Orange County’s coastal 48th Congressional District has put 30-year Republican Rep. Dana Rohrabacher in the toughest fight of his political career. He’s challenged by Democrat Harley Rouda, a Laguna Beach real estate executive who, polls suggest, has turned a once reliably conservative seat into a coin flip.

The race has attracted national attention due to its high stakes and narrow margins. It’s also on the national map because of Rohrabacher’s close ties to Russia have featured in the FBI’s probe into Moscow’s interference in the 2016 U.S. election.

This is Rouda’s first run for public office, prompting Rohrabacher to denounce the Democrat as inexperienced. In turn, Rouda notes that Rohrabacher has passed three bills in three decades, the last one 14 years ago, and has held no committee chairmanships despite his seniority.

The district is one of four in Orange County – and seven in California – targeted by national Democrats in their effort to flip 23 GOP-held seats nationally to take control of the House of Representatives. The seat stretches from Laguna Niguel to Seal Beach.

Republicans hold an 8.6 percentage point voter registration lead in the seat, though that’s about half what it was only four years ago. And while Rohrabacher won re-election by 17 percentage points in 2016, voters in the district narrowly favored Hillary Clinton for President.

Rohrabacher has campaigned primarily on a hard-line anti-illegal immigration platform, saying the existence of undocumented residents harms Americans, while employing sharp rhetoric and scare tactics similar to President Donald Trump. He has criticized Rouda’s support of sanctuary cities. Rohrabacher also voted against the GOP tax bill, saying it would cause his constituents to pay more.

Rouda, meanwhile, has criticized Rohrabacher for his vote to repeal and replace Obamacare, which, if the bill hadn’t failed, would have caused 14 million fewer people to have insurance this year, according to the Congressional Budget Office. The Democrat has run on improving the quality and affordability of health care, backing a Medicare-for-all system or a public option.

Part of Rohrabacher’s newfound political vulnerability lies in the fact that he has been frequently mired in controversy. In May, for example, he said that homeowners should be able to refuse to sell their property to gay people.

The Congressman – who chairs the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Europe, Eurasia, and Emerging Threats – also has been scrutinized for his defense of Moscow amid America’s probe into Kremlin interference in the 2016 election.

Rohrabacher has opposed economic sanctions against Russia, rejected U.S. intelligence agencies’ conclusion that Russian operatives hacked the Democratic National Committee. He met twice with a woman who federal officials later charged for being an unregistered agent of the Kremlin – basically, an accused Russian spy.

Rohrabacher has said any meetings with Russian operatives were part of his job. He said he advocates only for foreign policies that benefit America and has accused some federal officials of trying to perpetuate a Cold War with Moscow

Environmental issues also have featured prominently in the contest, in part because sea-level rise presents an immediate threat to the district’s coastal communities. Rohrabacher calls manmade global warming a “hoax” despite the scientific community’s near consensus otherwise. Meanwhile, Rouda says global warming is the greatest issue facing mankind, saying he wants to promote green-energy tech.

The contest has become the second most expensive House race in the nation in total spending, and the priciest in terms of outside money spent on independent expenditures. In total, $32.7 million has been spent on the race, nearly two-thirds by Democrats.

In the primary, Rohrabacher fended off a challenge from within his own party, when former Orange County GOP Chairman Scott Baugh entered the race, splitting Republican loyalties locally and spurring vicious intraparty attacks.

Bough’s presence in the race also opened the possibility of an all-GOP November ballot, if the two prominent Republicans both advanced to the top-two runoff. That prompted national Democrats to engage in gamesmanship, including paying for radio ads supporting a third-place Republican candidate. When the votes were tallied, Baugh fell a few thousand ballots shy of making the runoff.

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