Take Two translates the day’s headlines for Southern California, making sense of the news and cultural events that affect our lives. Produced by Southern California Public Radio and broadcast from October 2012 – June 2021. Hosted by A Martinez.
There's been yet another shakeup in Congress. Long-time Republican Representative Darrell Issa announced Wednesday that he would not be seeking re-election.
The statement comes days after Fullerton Congressman Ed Royce announced he would not run again.
Rafe Sonenshein, the executive director of the Pat Brown Institute at Cal State LA, says the decision is telling:
"The leading edge of a wave is always retirements of incumbents," he tells Take Two.
It's the canary in the mine when incumbents don't run, and the only way to resist a wave is to have incumbents who people are used to voting for, and then that becomes sort of a block to the wave. Losing incumbents is scary for Republicans right now.