BY TIM SHEEHAN
The Fresno Bee

Johnny Tacherra advanced to a third try at Congress, highlighting the central San Joaquin Valley’s November congressional races that took shape Tuesday.

All five of the region’s incumbents had an easy time in the primary, which winnows the field to two regardless of party for the November general election.

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With all precincts reporting by midmorning Wednesday, Tacherra had emerged with 33.8 percent of the vote to outdistance his Republican rival Dave Rogers of Chowchilla, who had 12.1 percent. Costa had 54.1 percent of the vote as he aims for a seventh two-year term in Congress.

The 16th encompasses portions of Fresno and Madera counties and all of Merced County.
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Costa said he’s looking forward to a rematch with Tacherra and expressed confidence that November would not be as much of a nail-biter as two years ago. “We did not anticipate such a low turnout in Merced and Fresno counties” in 2014, Costa said. “The turnout will be far better this November in a presidential election year.”

“Financially, we’re in a position of great strength heading into the general election,” Costa added. “We feel very good. These numbers reflect what our polling indicated three weeks ago.”