So once again, this happened: TJ Cox defeated three-term Republican Rep. David Valadao on Wednesday, giving Democrats a gain of seven House seats in California and 40 nationwide — the party’s strongest midterm showing since the Watergate era in the mid-1970s. Cox clinched his victory more than three weeks after election day, when updated results from Fresno and Kings counties pushed his lead over Valadao to 529 votes. The contest was the country’s last remaining undecided congressional contest. Cox, 55, trailed the GOP lawmaker by nearly 4,400 votes on election night but steadily gained ground as mail-in and other ballots tipped his way. And that follows the obvious funny stuff that went with the sudden surge of 'found' ballots that got Republican congressional candidate Young Kim displaced from her congressional victory to Democratic Party machine pol Gil Cisneros. Both Kim and Valadao were terrific Republicans who had...(Read Full Post)