In-Depth: Tracking the race for 41st Congressional District

Rep. Ken Calvert and Will Rollins face off once again in the race for the 41st Congressional District.

The California Elections and Policy Poll shows that the race is a dead heat. 46.1% a piece in a race featuring both sides spending millions of dollars.

"Do you have a guess?" News Channel 3 anchor John White asked Rollins.

Rollins answered, "I think this could be a $30 million house race at the end of the day."

Calvert said, "Some of my democrat friends say they're probably going to put $20 million into this on their side."

"And there's a lot of money coming in from your side too," John White told Calvert.

Calvert responded, "You know, we'll have adequate resources."

A lot of that money going to TV ads. John White played the ads for the two candidates. You can watch their full reactions below:

In-Depth Interviews with Rep. Calvert and Rollins:

"Democrats made California unaffordable, extreme liberal Will Rollins will make it worse," one anti-Will Rollins said.

"The word that you use for him is extreme," John White told Calvert as they watch the ad.

Calvert answered, "That's right, that's the correct terminology.  He's an LA liberal, he doesn't live here, he doesn't pay taxes here."

Rollins denies that, saying he is living in Palm Springs.

 "For decades, Ken Calvert has been buying up properties, like this one, then directing taxpayer dollars to increase the values of his investments," an anti-Ken Calvert ad said.

"That's an apartment building I owned 25 years ago and sold 20 year ago," Calvert said of the ad.

The ad goes on.

"It's time we hold Ken Calvert and corrupt politicians from both parties accountable for driving up housing costs..." the ad says.

"So, are you saying he's committed crimes, or are you saying he's corrupt in the sense of the dictionary term?" John White asked Rollins.

Rollins answered, "I'm saying, if we're getting into an argument over that, that person probably should be in Congress period."

"You use the word extreme for him, he uses corrupt for you," John White told Calvert. 

Calvert said, "Oh yeah, that's ridiculous.  They've been doing this ever since I started running for congress because I'm a business guy.  Anybody who's in business must be corrupt.  Republicans are corrupt because they're pro-business."

"Rollins was a prosecutor, the worst kind, reducing sentences for predators, releasing violent criminals to commit more crimes," one anti-Rollins ad said.

"So, it's totally misleading. And I think one of my favorite parts of these ads is that, guess who was the attorney general when I served in the Department of Justice, Jeff Sessions, Bill Barr," Rollins said of the ad.

Calvert noted, "He never worked for an attorney general. He worked for the US Attorney's Office in Los Angeles." 

Rollins is supporting term limits as he tries to take down a 16-term Congressman.

"My goal is to get that passed, and it's going to require probably a constitutional amendment," Rollins said.

"You know, I go through a term limit battle every 2 years," Calvert said.

They don't agree on a lot, which also includes whether to debate. A little over a week ago, News Channel 3 with the Press Enterprise and Southern California News Group invited both to meet face to face.

Rollins agreed to the debate.

"I've been ready for a long time, going back to 2022," Rollins said.

But Calvert did not.

"If I had a debate with him, that's what it would all be about, is attacking me as some corrupt politician, which is a lie.  He knows it's a lie and I'm not going to participate in that," Calvert said.

John White noted, "Don't you attack him as well?"

Calvert said, "Yeah, but I don't attack him personally.  I attack him on the issues."

"Now, your campaign is out with a website, so you're saying that he attacks you personally, but you're out with a website called Will Rollins is a liar dot com," John White said.

"It points out the inaccuracies of how he is treating me as some kind of corrupt politician. And everybody wants to believe that. You know, hey, look, you can, you can spend millions of dollars and say I'm the Antichrist. I imagine certain amount of people believe it, if you spend enough money doing it," Calvert said.

And the millions of dollars it takes to run a campaign is something Rollins says is unfortunate.

"I'm sure people are going to be sick of seeing these ads by the end of it, right?  And it's just unfortunately part of our system.  I think what I'm sure a lot of Americans would like is a shorter election season, so we don't have to constantly think about politics non-stop," Rollins said.

And spend they will. The third quarter reporting period ended last Monday, so we'll be getting updates soon on just how much money they'll have to spend in these final four weeks.

At the end of the second quarter, they had raised a combined nearly $13 million and had over $8 million cash on hand between them.

It was the most expensive race in the state of California at that point.