“Statewide and countywide, the GOP is eager to find something, somehow, to claim as a victory going into the 2018 elections,” said Mark Petracca, a UC Irvine political scientist. “I would expect the party to go out of its way to look for battles that can be won and hope these wins get widely reported to their members and, where possible, by the press.”

For the full story, please visit http://www.ocregister.com/2017/08/21/gop-finds-momentum-in-o-c-battles/.