Victory caps Dems’ rout in Calif. House
LOS ANGELES — Democrat Gil Cisneros captured a Republican-held U.S. House seat in Southern California, capping a Democratic rout in which the party picked up six congressional seats in the state.
In what had been the last undecided House contest in California, Mr. Cisneros beat Republican Young Kim for the state’s 39th District seat.
The Cisneros victory Saturday cements a stunning political realignment that will leave a vast stretch of the Los Angeles metropolitan area under Democratic control in the House.
With Ms. Kim’s defeat, four Republican-held House districts all or partly in Orange County, once a nationally known GOP stronghold, will have shifted in one election to the Democratic column. The change means that the county — Richard Nixon’s birthplace and site of his presidential library — will only have Democrats representing its residents in Washington next year.
The Orange County Democratic Party said it’s the first time since 1940 that all seven House seats in the county, home to 3.2 million people, are in Democratic control. Three seats all or partly in the northwestern end of the county are held by Democrats who were easily re-elected.
Democrats also recently picked up the last Republican-held House seat anchored in Los Angeles County, when Democrat Katie Hill ousted Republican Rep. Steve Knight.
Trump mulls Kelly’s fate
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump isn’t committing to a previous pledge to keep chief of staff John Kelly for the remainder of his term, part of widespread speculation about staffing changes that could soon sweep through his administration.
Mr. Trump, in a wide-ranging interview that aired on “Fox News Sunday,” praised Mr. Kelly’s work ethic and much of what he brings to the position but added, “There are certain things that I don’t like that he does.”
“There are a couple of things where it’s just not his strength. It’s not his fault. It’s not his strength,” said Mr. Trump, who added that Mr. Kelly himself might want to depart.
Asked whether he would keep Mr. Kelly in his post through 2020, the president offered only that “it could happen.” Mr. Trump had earlier pledged publicly that Mr. Kelly would remain through his first term in office, though many in the West Wing were skeptical.
Mr. Trump said he was happy with his Cabinet but was thinking about changing “three or four or five positions.” One of them is Homeland Security chief Kirstjen Nielsen, whose departure is now considered inevitable. Mr. Trump said in the interview that he could keep her on, but he made clear that he wished she would be tougher in implementing his hard-line immigration policies and enforcing border security.
Fla. sues over opioids
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Florida is suing the nation’s two largest drugstore chains, Walgreens and CVS, alleging they added to the state and national opioid crisis by overselling painkillers and not taking precautions to stop illegal sales.
Attorney General Pam Bondi announced that she has added the companies to a state-court lawsuit filed last spring against Purdue Pharma, the maker of OxyContin, and several opioid distributors.
Ms. Bondi said in a news release that CVS and Walgreens “played a role in creating the opioid crisis.” She said the companies failed to stop “suspicious orders of opioids” and “dispensed unreasonable quantities of opioids from their pharmacies.”