Republican Congressmembers From Southern California Thumbed Their Noses At Their Own Constituents Yesterday

Last November there were 5 congressional districts in Southern California with Republican Representatives that went for Hillary. In each one Trump did significantly worse than Romney had. In the district that straddles Orange and San Diego counties, CA-49, represented by Darrell Issa, Romney had won the district in 2012 with 52.4%. In November Trump got 43.2%, a 9 point drop-off. And Issa had the scare of his political life. His race was the last one decided in the whole country and in the end he edged out Doug Applegate 155,888 (50.3%) to 154,267 (49.7%). Issa spent $6,275,754 on the race to Applegate's $2,041,091. Colonel Applegate plans to finish what he started in 2018 and Issa's vote for TrumpCare yesterday will probably be the final nail in Issa's political coffin. Moments after the vote yesterday, Doug told me that had he "stood on the floor of the House, my vote would have been a resounding 'hell no.' Darrell, coward that he’s always proved to be, ducked the issue, saying it was 'none of [our] business' until the very last minute. This is what we get when people fail to answer the call and put profits ahead of people."

This was Issa's bullshit deceptive statement when he was finally forced to put his cards on the table: "Today, we made good on our promise to repeal and replace Obamacare. Let's stop pretending Obamacare is going to fix itself or that somehow, someday, it’s going to get better. Today's vote gives a voice to the victims of Obamacare, the millions of Americans who are paying higher premiums, receiving less coverage and for whom the status quo offered no end in sight. Obamacare is doing real harm to California's families and struggling businesses, and constituents are counting on me to deliver real relief. Obamacare was a failure from the get-go. Now is the time to make it right."

Here are the 2016 results in each GOP-held Southern California district that Trump lost:

• CA-25 (Steve Knight)- 50.3-43.6%
• CA-39 (Ed Royce)- 51.5-42.9%
• CA-45 (Mimi Walters)- 49.8-44.4%
• CA-48 (Dana Rohrabacher)- 47.9-46.2%
• CA-49 (Darrell Issa)- 50.7-43.2%

Will voters in these 5 key districts remember in 2018? There are some pretty good candidates running against them who will work hard to make sure the voters remember. Mimi Walters, for example (who doesn't even live in her own district) has several Democrats opposing her, including two outstanding progressives. Kia Hamadanchy, who until he recently decided to return home and run for Congress, was a staffer in Sherrod Brown's office. "It's incredible," he told us right after the vote, "that Mimi Walters was willing to vote in favor of a healthcare bill without having any idea how many people it covers or how much it would cost. She helped rush through a bill that is going to lead to higher costs and less healthcare coverage for the people of Orange County and she is doing so without doing any sort of due diligence about the full scope of its potential impact. What we do know however is that this legislation is a betrayal of everything that Mimi Walters and Donald Trump have promised when it comes to healthcare. They promised to protect those with preexisting conditions, to protect Medicaid, to lower deductibles and premiums, and to cover all Americans. The American Health Care Act does none of this."

Walters' other top progressive opponent is Katie Porter, a professor at UC, Irvine who has worked on consumer protection issues with Elizabeth Warren, with whom she wrote a book, The Law of Debtors And Creditors. Right after Walters cast the vote for TrumpCare, she told us that "From the very moment Trump's health care plan was unveiled, it was clear the proposal would have a devastating impact on families here in Orange County. But, time and again throughout this process, Congresswoman Walters showed she simply didn't care about how her plan would hurt her constituents. Congresswoman Walters was one of the chief proponents of Trump's plan, voting for and helping craft the bill in the House Energy and Commerce Committee. And she continued supporting the bill as Trump and congressional leaders bargained away pre-existing condition protections that help millions of Americans get coverage. Families in this district deserve leaders who will stand up to Trump and fight for their interests in Washington-- that's what is at stake in this campaign."

Yeah... it doesn't sound like Mimi Walters' constituents will be forgetting about yesterday's vote anytime between now and 2018. Nor will Steve Knight's constituents up in Santa Carita, the Antelope Valley and Simi Valley. Katie Hill, the grassroots progressive running against that will make sure of it: "The Republican’s Health Care replacement bill is, frankly, an insult to the American people," she told us last night. "Despite overwhelming opposition from his constituents, Steve Knight put his allegiance to Paul Ryan and Donald Trump ahead of his own friends and neighbors. Look, Obamacare isn’t perfect. I know that, and if I were in Congress, I would be fully committed to fighting until every single American has the high-quality healthcare they need, regardless of any pre-existing conditions, their employer, their socioeconomic status, their age, where they live, or anything else. No one should ever have to choose between their health and putting food on the table or a roof over their heads. The fact that this is still even a debate is absolutely absurd. If I were in Congress today, I would have listened to my constituents and voted no. I hope Steve Knight is prepared to defend his choice to the voters in 2018."

Devin Nunes has a lot more problems with CA-22 voters than just his terrible vote on healthcare yesterday and his district is central California, not southern California. But one of the Democrats running for the seat Nunes now occupies, prosecutor Andrew Janz, told Central Valley voters that the TrumpCare bill "will potentially take away health insurance coverage from millions of Americans. Republicans wrote this bill behind close doors, keeping folks in the dark, and forcing a vote before everyone even had the chance to read it, much less analyze its impact. This is the wrong approach. We must work together to ensure that, regardless of income level every American has access to high-quality, affordable healthcare, Rural communities like CA-22 will be hit especially hard by this bill, while Devin Nunes is running away from constituents and the press I'm running for Congress to represent the interests of this district."