GOP rails against Newsom's late date for special election to fill Rep. Doug LaMalfa's seat

This is read by an automated voice.Please report any issues or inconsistencies here.

This year’s midterm election already was going to be frustrating for many voters in a vast, rural swath of Northern California whose staunchly conservative district has been redrawn to favor Democrats after the passage of Proposition 50 last fall.Their longtime Republican congressman, Doug LaMalfa, a rice farmer from rural Butte County who had represented the region for 13 years, had vowed to run again in his newly configured district, despite the long odds.

But LaMalfa died during emergency surgery on Jan.5.

Now, Democratic Gov.Gavin Newsom — a vociferous critic of President Trump who is weighing a 2028 presidential run — has chosen the latest day possible under state law for a special election to fill LaMalfa’s seat for the last few months of his term.

In a Jan.16 proclamation, Newsom set the special election for Aug.

4.The victor will represent California’s 1st Congressional District with its current boundaries, which stretch from the northern outskirts of Sacramento, through Redding to the Oregon border and to Alturas in the state’s northeast corner.On June 2, voters will simultaneously cast ballots in the primary for the special election in the current district — and in the statewide primary for the November election for the new districts.If the winner of the special election primary gets more than 50% of the vote in the primary, he or she will win outright, serving the rest of LaMalfa’s term, which ends Jan.

3, 2027.“Voters will certainly be confused about the shifting district lines in two elections so close together in time,” Kim Nalder, director of the Project for an Informed Electorate at Sacramento State, said in an email.

She added that the special election is likely to get “fairly low turnout,” with those who do cast ballots being “better informed and more partisan.” LaMalfa’s death put the razor-thin Republican majority in Congres...