(January 14)  In local Democratic Party circles there is already peripheral discussion of the need to mount a challenge of Marc Steinorth in the 40th Assembly District in 2016.
The Sentinel has learned that a cabal of Democratic Women who think of themselves as the progressive wing of the party are angling to package Eloise Gomez Reyes, who an attorney and long time Democratic Party activist and fundraiser who ran unsuccessfully for Congress in the 31st District in 2014, as the best Democrat to challenge Steinorth next year.
As an Hispanic woman, Reyes is considered by an early crop of backers to be an ideal progressive voice to challenge Steinorth, a former Rancho Cucamonga City councilman who possesses the multiple strengths of owning an advertising agency, being a Republican in a district where voter turnout numbers significantly favor Republicans, as well as the power of incumbency. .
Nevertheless, some Democrats feel that Gomez-Reyes, who raised more than $1 million for her 2014 primary race in which she bucked the Democratic establishment’s support of the eventual winner, former Redlands mayor Pete Aguilar, possesses several qualities that would potentially lead to an effective Democratic voter registration drive and companion effort to get those voters to the polls to prevent Steinorth from achieving reelection.
In 2014, Steinorth comfortably outpolled his Democratic opponent, Kathleen Henry, 39,303 votes, or 55.66 percent to 31,309 votes, or 44.34 percent.
Currently, registration in the 40th Assembly District slightly favors the Democrats, with 77,475, or 37 percent of the district’s 209,499 total voters registered as Democrats, 76,959 or 36.7 percent registered as Republicans, 44,566 or 21.3 percent expressing no party preference, 7,043 or 3.4 percent registered as members of the American Independent Party, 1,121 registered as members of the Libertarian Party, 882 registered as members of the Peace and Freedom Party, 818 registered with the Green Party and 25 registered as members of the American Elect Party.