Now that Kevin McCarthy is not running for Congress again in the Central Valley, there is a mad scramble to succeed him. And the Secretary of State has extended the deadline for candidates to file.

This affects the race for Anna Eshoo’s seat as well, which we’ve been focusing on a lot here because so many people are tossing their hats in the ring in a very compressed amount of time.

Last Friday was the deadline to file to be a candidate for office in California, to be on the ballot for the March primary. But the law allows for an extension in races where there is no incumbent seeking re-election. So Secretary of State Shirley Weber has invoked that provision and granted five extra days to file, moving the deadline to December 13th for anyone who wants to run for Congress or the state legislature in one of those districts.

This actually applies in seven different Congressional districts in California, including those represented right now by Barbara Lee in Oakland, Anna Eshoo in Silicon Valley, former Speaker McCarthy’s district around Bakersfield and Fresno, as well as Adam Schiff’s district in Los Angeles.

They are all not seeking re-election. The extension also covers quite a few State Senate and Assembly districts.

For more on this, KCBS Radio's political reporter Doug Sovern discussed with KCBS Anchor, Patti Reising