Comprehensive breakdown

The OC Register tracked down every Democratic challenger running in targeted Southern California districts to get their position on single payer. The takeaway: these challengers are far out of step with mainstream voters.

Of the candidates interviewed, 17 of 22 offered full-throated support of the $32 trillion boondoggle, a plan that had to be taken off the table even in the progressive California legislature this year.

The candidates on-record supporting single-payer are:

• CA-39: Phil Janowicz, Gil Cisneros, Sam Jammal, Andy Thorburn, and Julio Castaneda
• CA-45: Katie Porter, Kia Hamdanchy, Ron Varasteh, and Eric Rywalski
• CA-48: Harley Rouda, Laura Oatman, Tony Zarkades, Boyd Roberts, and Omar Siddiqui
• CA-49: Doug Applegate, Mike Levin, and Paul Kerr

A few candidates tried to bridge the gap, paying lip service to single-payer in some form or another. Those candidates include calculating politicians like CA-39’s Mai Khanh Tran, CA-45’s Dave Min, and CA-48’s Hans Kierstead.

Time will tell if these candidates get drug even further to the left. As CA-25 Democratic candidate Katie Hill proved yesterday, it’s not as easy as they may think to escape being saddled with this unpopular, far-left position in a crowded primary.