When patent-lawyer and ex-Deputy Assistant Secretary at Obama’s Commerce Department, Ro Khanna, announced his intentions to run against incumbent Democrat Mike Honda, the national media was a buzz – a liberal with a high-tech sparkle running to represent Silicon Valley. And with him, he brought some of Obama’s OFA team whose high-tech approach to GOTV was credited in Obama’s victory. The shiny new tech-savvy candidate who promised, “change”, dazzled many of the local progressives. The message and OFA-esque graphics were exactly what you would expect from Khanna’s campaign consultant, OFA hero Jeremy Bird.
Khanna got a quick fundraising boost from many high-tech corporate elites, no doubt they liked his pro high-tech talk and Commerce Dept. credentials. Of the approximately 1200 people running for congress in America, he is number 2 with big money donors.
Problems started when he found most of the Democratic voters in district 17 were not ready to let go of Mike Honda. Honda has devoted his life to the people of Silicon Valley. From his humble beginning as a high-school teacher, Honda was promoted to the school board before he was selected as a county, state, and finally congressional representative. Mike Honda has always been on the side of the working-class, fighting for the inclusion of all in the American dream. The affable Honda stood up against bullying and discrimination of all types. Why would we want to lose somebody about whom Rep. Barbara Lee recently proclaimed:
Mike’s progressive credentials are stellar. […] He’s introduced bill after bill promoting science education, including efforts to broaden the public’s knowledge of climate change. In 2010 he pushed for including a public option in the ACA, and has fought to expand the law ever since.
Rep. Barbara Lee CA13
Unable to build the Democratic support needed to unseat Honda, Khanna looked to fill the void. He eyed the 19% of Republican voters and made a sharp right turn in his outreach efforts, even willing to accept the help of the Tea Party Express and doing an “exclusive” interview for the far right website, Breitbart News. Neither he nor his staffers have shared the interview using their high-tech social media tools. Some might even think he was hiding it from his Democratic supporters.
Not only is Khanna willing to reach out to conservatives, he is also willing to use the dirty tactics of Republican strategist Karl Rove – throw out lots of accusations – even if they get refuted, just keep blasting them out because this puts the accused on the defensive, left to either ignore or defend against, neither are winning choices. The #CA17 twitter stream has become a sewer, clogged with Ro Khanna staffers tweeting out and retweeting each other’s exaggerated and discredited claims, which the Honda campaign wisely ignores.
Ro Khanna’s turn to the right has not gone unnoticed. In an effort to protect the federal seat, the state’s Democratic Party has paid to air Honda’s commercial for a week. Progressive groups like Howard Dean’s Democracy for America have taken to questioning Khanna’s new direction. Howard Dean himself recently got involved after seeing Khanna’s flyer calling Honda an “Old-School Liberal”, attacking Honda’s desire to repeal the “Bush tax cuts.”
Why would someone running as a Democrat attack a fellow Democrat for wanting to repeal the reckless Bush tax cuts? That’s the question I had after seeing Ro Khanna’s latest attack against Rep. Mike Honda.
George W. Bush’s tax cuts were fiscally irresponsible. At a time when the nation was at war — and when we had important investments to make here at home — President Bush pushed Congress to pass a huge and unprecedented tax cut that favored the rich and caused our national debt to soar. Yet Ro Khanna is now attacking Mike Honda for opposing Bush’s disastrous tax cut. His congressional campaign is sending mailers to voters in California’s 17th District calling Honda an “old-school liberal” and criticizing him for wanting to do the right thing in repealing Bush’s tax cuts.
Being a “liberal” isn’t an insult, it’s a badge of honor — one shared by Senators like Elizabeth Warren and Sherrod Brown. But there’s nothing good about supporting reckless tax cuts that benefited the super rich and exploded our nation’s deficit. Mike Honda showed true leadership and fiscal responsibility in pushing to repeal Bush’s tax cuts. It’s just one big reason why I endorsed Mike Honda.
As the former Chair of the Democratic National Committee, it’s obvious to me that Ro Khanna is campaigning like a Republican. Real Democrats don’t use “liberal” as an epithet or attack fellow Democrats for standing up for progressive values like making sure the wealthy pay their fair share in taxes.
This race is a battle for the future of the Democratic Party. Don’t let Ro Khanna get away with moving our party to the right by attacking Democrats for standing up for our values.
Gov. Howard Dean, Founder
Democracy for America
If there is any doubt left in the minds of district 17 voters of who would really represent the working people of Silicon Valley, look to the many big money donors to which Ro Khanna will be beholden. Over a month ago I reported on a Super Pac that was created exclusively for Ro Khanna by millionaire donor Ash Chopra, a financial adviser at Merrill Lynch. The Super Pac, Californians for Innovation, remained dormant until a few days after the October 1 FEC filling deadline, which meant the donors would remain hidden until the next filling deadline on October 15. The Super Pac has already spent over $150,000 and now we know where the money is coming from: $250,000 of the $390,000 raised by Californians for Innovation came from John Arnold, Texas billionaire, and natural gas trader of the defunct Enron Corporation.
According to the Mercury News, this is not Arnold’s first incursion into California politics. He spent $200,000 on San Jose mayor, Chuck Reed’s failed effort to get a pension reform measure on the ballot. And if you read Khanna’s recent comments on pension reform, blaming public workers for the crimes of Wall Street, Arnold’s reason for supporting Khanna becomes obvious. For any voter that lived through the rolling blackouts of 2000 and remember being blackmailed by Enron, this should be lights out for the Khanna campaign.
Howard Dean said, this is, “a battle for the future of” the Democratic Party; I would say this is a battle for the soul of the Democratic Party. The “hope” many had of Jeremy Bird bringing a progressive and modern campaign to CA17 was lost after reading his recent spin on Ro Khanna’s polling where he spent more time bashing fellow Democrat and local progressive hero Mike Honda than promoting Khanna. When Jeremy Bird and 270 Strategies analyze the results of this campaign, they may learn that it’s the candidate, not the campaign that wins elections. Ro is no Obama*.
* President Obama endorsed Mike Honda over Khanna early in the primary.
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