(McClatchy) Donald Trump is playing a starring role in at least five of the most hotly contested races for the California Assembly and Senate.
California Democrats in those races are using a strategy their party has employed in congressional and other contests across the country — spending millions of dollars to link Republican candidates to their party's nominee for president, even in races where GOP lawmakers have refused to back Trump.
"Marc Steinorth and Donald Trump. Two sides of the same coin," says a mail ad targeting an incumbent Republican lawmaker in San Bernardino County.
"What's the difference between Dante Acosta and Donald Trump?" asks the narrator of a television ad for an Assembly race in the Santa Clarita Valley. "Nothing. Two candidates, same resume."