Once was enough for Debbie Cook, the Huntington Beach mayor who lost to Rep. Dana Rohrabacher on Tuesday by a margin of 52.3% to 43.5%.
Cook had a hard time raising serious money in the race, and faced an uphill battle in the 46th District, which runs from Palos Verdes to Orange County. The district was drawn to be safe for a Republican, and has a 12-point Republican registration advantage. So even in a strong year for Democrats, Cook was a long shot.
"Obviously it's a very stressful thing to do," Cook told me today, in explaining why she has no interest in running again next time. "No one helps you in these campaigns. With our limited resources we achieved amazing results."
Cook raised about $330,000 -- far less than she would have needed to be competitive or to get help from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. She did force Rohrabacher to raise money and run a campaign, something he hasn't had to do in a while, and she kept him under his usual 20-point victory margin.
Interestingly, Cook said that she had been told that Green Party candidate Thomas Lash would not run. Had she known he would join the race, she said she never would have run.
"He took probably 3 percent of the vote," she said. "That makes it virtually impossible."
On the plus side, she said she got to meet a bunch of interesting people and go to conferences. And she did get this out of it:
Cook had a hard time raising serious money in the race, and faced an uphill battle in the 46th District, which runs from Palos Verdes to Orange County. The district was drawn to be safe for a Republican, and has a 12-point Republican registration advantage. So even in a strong year for Democrats, Cook was a long shot.
"Obviously it's a very stressful thing to do," Cook told me today, in explaining why she has no interest in running again next time. "No one helps you in these campaigns. With our limited resources we achieved amazing results."
Cook raised about $330,000 -- far less than she would have needed to be competitive or to get help from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. She did force Rohrabacher to raise money and run a campaign, something he hasn't had to do in a while, and she kept him under his usual 20-point victory margin.
Interestingly, Cook said that she had been told that Green Party candidate Thomas Lash would not run. Had she known he would join the race, she said she never would have run.
"He took probably 3 percent of the vote," she said. "That makes it virtually impossible."
On the plus side, she said she got to meet a bunch of interesting people and go to conferences. And she did get this out of it:
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