GOP challenger to U.S. Rep. Katie Porter doesn’t live in the district: Should that matter?

A Republican hoping to unseat Democratic Rep. Katie Porter in 2020 is drawing early criticism from a fellow challenger, and some political observers, because she doesn’t live in the district she wants to represent.

Peggy Huang lives in Yorba Linda and serves on the city council. Yorba Linda is in CA-39, but the district Porter represents — and which Huang wants to take — is CA-45. The boundaries for California’s 45th congressional district stretch from Irvine to Mission Viejo and north through Anaheim, a few miles south of Huang’s home.

What Huang hopes to do isn’t illegal. While representatives for California legislative districts and city council districts are legally required to live within those areas, federal law only requires House members to live in the same state. And though it’s far from the norm, it’s also not particularly rare.

Still, just because it’s legal for a candidate to live outside the district they aim to represent doesn’t mean it sits well with voters. And with three more Republican challengers already in the race to challenge Porter, D-Irvine, experts say Huang’s residency could become a real issue for her campaign.

“Voters get to choose,” said Jodi Balma, a political science professor at Fullerton College.

“And voters tend to not like candidates who shop for districts.”

Why not the 39th?

Huang, a deputy state Attorney General, offers a simple explanation for her decision: While her home district of CA-39 includes portions of Orange, Los Angeles and San Bernardino counties, CA-45 is entirely in Orange County.

“My constituency has been in Orange County,” she said.

The residents she represents on Yorba Linda’s city council all live in Orange County. Same for the people she represents as a member of the three boards on which she sits: the Transportation Corridor Agencies, the Orange County Mosquito and Vector Control District, and the Regional Council for Southern California Agencies of Governments.

Huang also pointed out that she has history in CA-45. While she was born in Taiwan and lived much of her life in Northern California, she said she graduated from University High School in Irvine, which is in the district she wants to represent.

Political observers point to other factors that they believe could have influenced Huang’s decision.

The partisan battle might be less favorable for a Republican candidate in the 39th District, which recently saw voter registration shift to a slight advantage for Democrats. In CA-45, the GOP still holds a 5 point registration advantage.

Another factor might be the fact that a strong challenger to Rep. Gil Cisneros, who currently represents CA-39, is already in the race. Young Kim, a well known GOP legislator who lost to Cisneros in November by 3.2 percentage points, filed paperwork on April 19 to run again in 2020.

Kim is a Korean American, while Huang’s parents brought her to the United States from Taiwan when she was 7 years old. Fullerton College Professor Balma said that if Huang and Kim both were to run in CA-39, the two Asian American, Republican women might be vying for many of the same voters. Plus, Balma noted, it’s protocol for new candidates to give deference to returning challengers in the same party.

Residency ‘fair game’ in campaign

No matter the reasons, Balma said Huang’s residency is “fair game” for opponents to exploit during what’s expected to be a very competitive race. And, fair or not, she said the label can harm a candidate’s ability to get their message out to voters.

“The earlier you can brand someone as ‘a carpetbagger,’ the less people ever find out the rest of that story,” Balma said.

Fellow Republican candidate Greg Raths, who is mayor of Mission Viejo, has already tweeted twice about the issue.

“Stay in your own District Peggy,” Raths posted April 2, with a map showing CA-45 boundaries.

The other two Republican challengers in the race — Laguna Hills City Councilman Donald Sedgwick and Orange County prosecutor Ray Gennawey — haven’t taken to social media to comment on the issue. Likewise, Porter has made no mention of Huang.

The issue looks worse for Huang, Balma noted, because it seems she’s been trying to avoid calling attention to her Yorba Linda residency.

While most candidates are quick to tout prior political experience, Huang’s press release announcing her bid for Congress didn’t mention her four years on the Yorba Linda City Council. Likewise, Huang doesn’t mention her tenure on the council, or where she lives, in an otherwise detailed biography posted to her campaign website.

In a candidacy statement filed with the Federal Election Commission, Huang used the address for a PostalAnnex in Irvine, which is the location for her campaign’s official P.O. Box.

‘Carpetbagging’ not rare

Carpetbagging hasn’t been a disqualifying factor for some federal representatives.

At least 5 percent of House reps were found to be living outside their district in 2017, according to a Washington Post analysis of voting records.

That included Mimi Walters, who lived in Laguna Niguel during the two terms she represented CA-45, until Porter defeated her by 4.2 percentage points in November. And Cisneros moved into the 39th just as he was launching his 2018 campaign, though he said the move was to be closer to his wife’s family in Yorba Linda.

What voters have to decide, Balma said, is whether they believe candidates such as Huang can accurately reflect their concerns in Washington even while living outside any of the cities they represent.

“Is Yorba Linda so radically different from Irvine that she couldn’t possibly represent those people?” Balma said.

If 2018 proved anything, Balma said, it’s that “anything can happen.”