Democrat Josh Harder's campaign is one of two Central Valley races are encompassed by the affected headquarters. | Alex Edelman/Getty Images elections California Democrats rattled by apparent campaign break-in

OAKLAND — California Democrats are raising alarms about an apparent election eve break-in and theft of campaign materials from a party outpost that overlaps with two critical districts.

Campaign officials said workers arrived at the Merced County Senate Democratic headquarters on the morning of Election Day to find that a window had been broken. Computers and dozens of boxes of campaign literature had vanished. A Merced Police Department spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.


Democrats fear the theft could compromise the results in a pair of swing races that are pivotal to control of Congress and California’s Legislature.

“I’m hopeful this won’t have a huge impact on (get out the vote) efforts but it will obviously have some impact — people are having to divert their attention” from an outlying area to drive materials over, Emily Haden, chairwoman of the Merced County Democratic Central Committee, said by phone. “I really hope this isn’t politically motivated, but given the atmosphere in this county right now it wouldn’t surprise me.”

Two targeted Central Valley races are encompassed by the affected headquarters: Democrat Josh Harder’s challenge to Rep. Jeff Denham (R-Calif.) and a clash between Democratic Assemblywoman Anna Caballero and Republican Madera County Supervisor Rob Poythress over an open state Senate seat that could determine whether Democrats regain a two-thirds majority in the statehouse. That would allow them to raise taxes without Republican votes. Both contests have attracted enormous amounts of money.

“If you were trying to steal an election in what people believe is a fairly close race, and all these things depend at the end of the day on turnout, and you have a highly organized way of distributing thousands of these door-hangers and they’re stolen, it kind of puts a crimp in your operation,” said Bob Sanders, a spokesman for the Caballero campaign.

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A Harder campaign representative said they were looking into the situation.

President Donald Trump has warned in the runup to the high-stakes midterms of the potential for election meddling, saying in a tweet yesterday that law enforcement would be watching for “ILLEGAL VOTING which may take place.”

The U.S. Justice Department announced it would be dispatching election monitors to counties around the country, including two in California. Merced County was not one of them.

Carla Marinucci contributed to this report.

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California 2018 elections