Will Lois Capps’ daughter run for Congress?
March 22, 2015
Democratic Rep. Lois Capps’ daughter and son-in-law have given up their bicoastal life to settle fulltime in Santa Barbara fueling speculation the Laura Capps plans to run for her mother’s 24th District seat in 2016.
Rumors have been circulating for more than a year that Laura Capps, 42, was planning to relocate to Santa Barbara in order to run for her 77-year-old mother’s seat in the 2016 election. Laura, who started her career at the Clinton White House, is considered one half of a Democratic power couple. [Santa Barbara Independent]
Her husband, 37-year-old Bill Burton, is a political consultant who was the national press secretary during Barack Obama’s first campaign for president.
Lois Capps husband Walter Capps was elected to Congress in 1996, however, he died of a heart attack less than a year into his term. Lois Capps then won the seat in a special election in 1998.
Though she has continued to retain the district seat, in 2014, she had the closest race of her congressional career against Republican Chris Mitchum. Lois Capps ultimately won by a 3.8 percent margin.
During the race, Lois Capps was battling allegations of a coverup and that she was running deceptive campaign ads.
The alleged coverup of a fatal DUI collision caused by one of her staffers alienated some voters. Lois Capps allegedly attempted to place her former staffer Raymond Morua in a veterans’ treatment facility after he killed Mallory Dies while driving drunk last year.
Following a suit by the victim’s family, the federal government agreed to pay $2.5 million to the Dies family.
Capps drew further criticism late in the campaign for running a television ad that took a clip of a Mitchum interview out of context. The ad showed Mitchum saying he would not go to Washington to represent the 24th District, but when viewed in entirety, Mitchum was saying he would not go to Washington to bring back pork.
In Feb., Mitchum filed a lawsuit against Lois Capps, alleging that the Democratic Rep. defamed him in a television ad the suit says altered the outcome of last year’s election.
Though he has not yet announced, termed-out 35th Assembly District Assemblyman Katcho Achadjian said he is considering a run for Lois Capps’ seat in 2016.
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