National Democrats are picking a side in California’s House race

from Maya S. MillerCalMatters

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National Democrats have focused on the 22nd Congressional District, a swing seat in the Central Valley, as a key part of their strategy to regain control of Congress.

Two Democrats are vying for the chance to challenge incumbent Republican David Valadao, whose defeat is all the more decisive after the court rulings blew up Democratic redistricting plans.

After saying they wouldn’t pick a side in the primary, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee recently stepped in with a last-minute endorsement of a moderate state assemblyman Jasmeet Bain over progressive college professor Randy Villegas.

This provoked an angry reaction from local democratic leaders.

“They lied to all of us,” said Christian Romo, chairman of the Kern County Democratic Central Committee, who said DCCC staff told him repeatedly that his organization would not interfere in the primary unless it looked like two Republican candidates would advance. In California’s open primary, the two candidates with the most votes advance to the November election, regardless of party affiliation.

Romo and his colleagues in Tulare, Fresno and Kings counties supported Villegas and publicly condemned the DCCC’s move to add Baines to their priority list of overflow districts. The national party, Romo said, is trying to attract state and local Democrats who earlier this year they could not reach a consensus whom to support.

“It’s a slap in the face to local parties,” Romo said.

For months, liberal activists have clashed which brand democrat is best able to woo enough working-class and Latino voters to win the conservative district — the same tug-of-war between centrists and progressive populists that has played out across the country.

After redistricting, Democrats have a slight edge in voter registration at 42 percent, while 26 percent of registered voters are Republican and 22 percent are registered with no party preference, according to the California Target Book.

The DCCC’s decision to step in is yet another example of establishment Democrats’ reluctance to take a chance on a candidate like Villegas, who is backed by progressives like the Working Families Party, Sen. Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Rep. Ocasio Cortez in a battleground race.

Baines’ supporters say she is more electable than Villegas given her background as a physician and the district’s high reliance on Medicaid, which Valladao voted to reduce. She also touts her streak of independent voices, which has sometimes put her at odds with the Democratic Party leadership.

“Even though she’s a Democrat, she’s not afraid. She doesn’t necessarily have to vote along party lines,” said Mario Nunez, the mayor of Delano and a registered nonpartisan who supports Baines. “She will vote across party lines if it helps her district.”

Ironically, however, in Sacramento and Washington, D.C., establishment power players such as SEIU California, Planned Parenthood, and Democratic legislative leaders lined up to support Bain.

Adding her to the shortlist of statewide overflow races unlocks access to fundraising, voting and assistance from DCCC staff.

“This election is too important” for the DCCC not to intervene, said the chairwoman, Congresswoman Suzanne DelBain of Washington. in a recent interview on CBS’s Face the Nation. “We’ve always been clear that we only weigh in the primary when we think a candidate stands out as the strongest possible nomination to ensure we win in the general election.”

A DCCC spokesperson declined to make DelBene available for an interview with CalMatters.

Villegas’ campaign, meanwhile, is using the National Democrats’ meddling as further evidence that party elites have lost touch with ordinary working people and will use insider connections to keep pro-establishment candidates in power.

“What the establishment is doing right now is a clear signal that they don’t believe my opponent can win this race on her own, which is why they’re trying to swoop in at the last minute to try to save her,” Villegas told CalMatters in an interview.

Jesse Aguilar, a Villegas supporter and member of the California Teachers Association board of directors, said he felt “betrayed” by what he felt was the national party stepping in instead of letting voters in the 22nd Congressional District decide for themselves who they want to see in the general election. The CTA approved Villegas.

The California Democratic Party, which is not directly affiliated with the national Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, did not endorse a candidate from the 22nd district at its February convention.

Both candidates are trailblazing in fundraising, with Baines reporting about $700,000 and Villegas $718,000, according to recent federal filings. Villegas promises to reject corporate PAC money and says he was able to fundraise Bains in several quarters through grassroots donations. His recent major funders include the Jane Fonda Climate PAC and the Latino Victory Fund.

Some of Bains’ biggest recent sponsors have been groups that represent health care professionals, such as the Anesthesiologists PAC and the Obstetrics and Gynecology PAC. She has also received money from unions such as the State Building and Construction Trades Council and the California Carpenters, as well as several California elected officials.

Bain and Villegas were approved by the editorial boards of the other newspapers in the district, The Fresno Bee and Bakersfield, California.

Advertising is also getting nasty.

The Progressive Party for Working Families spent $150,000 on digital ads that portray Bains as a corporate fool which takes money from some of the same wealthy donors who bankroll Valadao’s campaign.

“Baines took big money from big pharma and health care corporations, thousands from corporate polluters and failed to show up to vote on expanding our health care,” proclaimed one ad paid for by the Working Families PAC.

Baines’ campaign declined to make the assemblyman available for an interview. In a statement from the campaign, she said she had “earned the trust of Valley families by getting results” and that she had “deep support from people here who know and trust my story.”

One group supporting Baines, the Democratic Majority for Israel, whose views align with AIPAC, launched $500,000 worth of ads against Villegas, alleging that he voted to cover up child sexual abuse as a Visalia school board trustee, a talking point that Baines’ campaign encourage external users to highlight. The ad cites a Los Angeles Times investigation which uncovered more than 750 lawsuits and settlements as a result of a state law that expanded the eligibility of school sexual assault victims to sue their districts.

There is the topic of Israel become a litmus test in California and across the country as progressive candidates like Villegas seek to distance themselves from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, or AIPAC, and related groups. Villegas has vowed to vote against sending additional weapons or military aid to Israel if elected. Bain, who is supported by the Democratic Majority for Israel, appears to have privately influenced the situation in Gaza “genocide,” but later retracted those comments in a statement to Politico.

“I’m wary of the word genocide and I don’t believe it applies to Israel,” she told Politico.

Villegas called the ads “disgusting and deplorable” and accused Bain’s supporters of exploiting the pain, trauma and suffering of victims for political gain. He emphasized that he supports a survivor’s right to seek compensation and noted that sensitive legal issues such as settlements in sexual assault cases will never be discussed or debated in an open school board meeting.

“Nothing in these settlement agreements prevents these individuals from speaking up and sharing their stories,” Villegas said. “These settlements actually allow these people and their families to have justice on their own terms, and I will continue to fight every day for all of our students.”

National Republicans have too taken to intervene in battlefield areas hoping to galvanize more progressive candidates they see as less electable. Federal filings show the Congressional Leadership Fund, a Super PAC tied to House Republican leadership, poured in nearly $72,000 in mails attacking Villegas as a “left-wing progressive” who is “too extreme for the Central Valley.”

The tactic, often used by both parties, aims to boost a candidate’s name, even through negative ads, in hopes of angering and bringing out progressive Democrats and supporters of Villegas.

This article was originally published on CalMatters and is republished under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivatives license.