Garamendi primed to replace Tauscher

California Lt. Gov. John Garamendi (D) appears a solid bet to win Tuesday's other special election.

Garamendi leads Republicans businessman David Harmer 50-40 in a new SurveyUSA poll on the race to replace former Rep. Ellen Tauscher (D-Calif.). That's a bigger margin than the seven-point difference Harmer's campaign showed a few weeks ago in its polling.

The district was expected to be a relatively easy Democratic hold (it was two-to-one Obama last year) but Harmer, the son of a former lieutenant governor, has put up a fight.

Unfortunately for him, he could never convince the national party to get involved in the race, especially with New York's 23rd district blowing up like it did.