Ken Calvert

Barely four days before voters in California's redrawn 40th Congressional District take the first step in the contest between Republican Reps. Ken Calvert and Young Kim, the race appears to be growing more mean-spirited by the hour.

"Ken and Young will finish one-two in the race and advance to the November election," Jon Fleischman, editor of the widely read FlashReport on California politics, said, explaining that under California's top-two primary system, all candidates, regardless of party, appear on the same ballot in the June 2 primary, and the top two vote-getters advance to the general election in November.

"And I think it's going to be ugly," Fleischman added.

Already, Calvert, who was first elected to Congress in 1992 and is among the longest-serving House Republicans, and Kim, a three-term congresswoman and one of the first Korean American women elected to Congress, are ramping up a bare-knuckled media campaign on the eve of the vote.

Calvert's on-air and online broadsides slam Kim for supporting a House resolution to censure President Donald Trump over the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol breach and brand her a "Trump betrayer."

Kim fired back with TV spots accusing Calvert of "being in lockstep with [former Democrat House Speaker] Nancy Pelosi to destroy the president's agenda."

Earlier this year, voters approved a statewide initiative that redrew California's 52 U.S. House districts, leading former allies Calvert and Kim to compete in the new, heavily Republican 40th District in southeastern Los Angeles County.

Given that Calvert's former district comprises roughly half of the new one, he is likely to finish first and Kim second. But their rancor and invective are almost certain to continue through the fall election.