Can A Democrat Defeat Devin Nunes?

Alas, it looks likely that the $1,390,505 Andrew Janz has managed to generate in anti-Nunes contributions may power him into Congress. Why "alas?" Janz is a dreadful candidate who will undoubtably make a dreadful member of Congress. How do I know? I spoke to him right after he declared he's running-- before he rented any Beltway consultants who taught him how to speak like a Democrat. How he, more or less, speaks like a Democrat. But when I spoke with him, he didn't. When I asked him if he supports single payer healthcare he didn't know what it is. I said, Medicare for All and he got snippy... "Can I just tell you what is motivating me to run?," he asked. Sure, I said. He had two motivations, he volunteered. One was to make sure the death penalty was used more frequently. The other was to protect the Second Amendment. I thought he might be joking around. He wasn't. He said Valley Democrats aren't like you people on the coasts. Oy!

While I was regaining my equilibrium, I asked him a real softball-- if there were any members of Congress he admires and would like to work with on legislation. He had an instant reply: Jim Costa, another Valley Democrat. Costa's voting record is the worst of any Democrat in California. He's an especially wretched Blue Dog who ProgressivePunch has not just rated an "F," but whose 2018 crucial vote score (32.97) is actually worse than some Republicans' scores.The next worst Democrats' scores are Blue Dog Lou Correa (51.02) and New Dem Scott Peters (52.58). At least those two reactionaries vote with the Democrats around half the time-- unlike Costa.

Will Janz be a better member of Congress than Nunes? Of corse he will-- just like Costa is. But on almost two-thirds of votes he's likely to be exactly as bad as Nunes. And Janz-- like Costa-- will be able to do something Nunes never can: drag the Democratic caucus further to the right in everything it does. He'll be shitting on the party brand at every opportunity, confusing voters and people who have given up on voting at all. And-- for the sake of the primary-- there happens to be a better, a much better, candidate running for the Nunes seat, Ricardo Franco. He's an actual progressive who would make a stellar member of Congress. Right now Nunes has a campaign warchest of $4,535,099, to Janz's $612,273 and Franco's $2,188.

If anything defeats Nunes, it will be his disgraceful involvement in covering up for Trump. Yesterday Jim Comey dismissed the findings of Nunes' absurd report purporting to have found no evidence Señor Trumpanzee's campaign colluded with Russians. On Meet The Press Sunday, Comey referred to Nunes' report as "a political document... That is not my understanding of what the facts were before I left the FBI and I think the most important piece of work is the one the special counsel's doing now." Comey pointed out that Nunes and his work "wrecked the committee, and it damaged relationships with the FISA Court, the intelligence communities. It's just a wreck."

Nunes has transformed the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence into "a beachhead" to gather support for President Donald Trump against his enemies, according to an article published this week in the New York Times Magazine.

Written by contributor Jason Zengerle, "How Devin Nunes Turned The House Committee Inside Out" looks at the Tulare Republican's rise from Central Valley farming roots to leading one of the nation's most powerful congressional oversight bodies.


Zengerle writes how Nunes' close ties to Trump were forged after an August 2016 fundraiser the then-presidential candidate held in Tulare, "cementing a political alliance that would have become one of the most consequential of the Trump era."


According to the article, after the election Nunes and Trump had discussed the possibility of him becoming director of national intelligence, overseeing a reorganization of the intelligence community.

However, Trump's circle saw Nunes as more valuable in Congress leading the Intelligence Committee.

"Some 17 months later, that looks to have been a remarkably prescient decision-- as Trump appears to have been able to influence Nunes to a remarkable degree. So much so that during Trump's time in the White House, Nunes has transformed the Intelligence Committee into a beachhead from which to rally his fellow Republicans in support of the president against his perceived enemies-- not just the Democratic Party but also the FBI, the Department of Justice and the entire intelligence community."


Zengerle also wrote Nunes has begun "laying the groundwork" to discredit special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into whether there was collusion between Trump's 2016 campaign and Russia before Mueller's report is completed.

The article mentions how Nunes earlier this year pushed for the release of a memo he wrote that describes alleged Federal Bureau of Investigation and Department of Justice bias against Trump during an investigation of his campaign.

Additionally, Republicans on the Intelligence Committee in March concluded there was no collusion or coordination between Trump's presidential campaign and Russia.

In the article, Nunes spokesman Jack Langer responded by saying the facts sent by the New York Times Magazine to check for the piece are "filled with laughable fictional stories and some entertaining conspiracy theories" that "are great examples of why so few people trust theNew York Times anymore."

So what paper does Nunes trust? Certainly not the biggest newspaper in his own district, the Fresno Bee. A few days later, it pointed out that Nunes is in jeopardy of losing his reelection bid. Yes, even to as crappy a candidate as Janz. CA-22, which goes from Clovis and Fresno and it's northern and eastern suburbs down through Dinuba and Visalia past Tulare, has a PVI of R+8. Obama lost both times he ran and Trump beat Hillary 52.1% to 42.6%. That's off for a district where just 41.9 of the population is white. Perhaps someone will persuade the DCCC about the efficacy of voter registration someday. Opps... no-one will since the corrupt staffers who run the DCCC haven't figured out how to line their own pockets with voter registration drives. The Fresno Bee was informing its readers that Nunes' district, CA-22, had been downgraded by Sabato's Crystal Ball from safe Republican to likely Republican.