The Race To Replace California's Worst Democrat In Congress

California is a blue state but the Republican wing of the Democratic Party is very strong in the state. There are 46 California Democrats serving in the House. Believe me, they're not all like Barbara Lee, Ted Lieu, Ro Khanna or Judy Chu. according to ProgressivePunch, 15 have voting records that score "A." Three more than that-- 18-- have voting records that score "F." The worst belongs to Blue Dog Jim Costa, who doesn't even have the excuse of being in a red or even a swing district. CA-17, his central Valley district has a PVI of D+9. Not even the DCCC at its most incompetent could lose a district that blue. In fact, although Democrats routinely get elected in red districts-- including strong red districts-- there is only one blue district in the entire country held by a Republican at this point-- NY-24 (D+3).





There is no conceivable reason why Democrats in Fresno, Merced, Madera, Chowchilla and Los Banos should have to put up with someone as conservative and someone as opposed to core Democratic Party values as Costa. Replacing him should be a priority for California progressives. Another conservative candidate from the party machine-- Esmeralda Soria, a long-time Costa supporter-- jumped into the race, a purely careerist move that may have inspired some anti-Costa activists because she surely wasn't going to be as bad as he is, even just because she's a woman and younger than him. But not even remotely a progressive. But then we met former Obama administration diplomat Kimberly Williams and quickly figured out that we do have a real progressive in the race-- under-financed to be sure, but someone with the values we need in Congress. Blue America endorsed her. So did the local chapter of Our Revolution. Then PDA came on board.

One trusted progressive group didn't though-- Courage Campaign. They endorsed Soria. I contacted them and told them they had made a grievous error. They told me they hadn't made an error at all. Yesterday, I introduced them to Kim Williams and sent them-- with her permission-- this letter she had sent me, a letter that was a continuation of a week's worth of correspondence. She also said it would be OK for me to share it here at DWT. Please read it and consider contributing to her campaign by clicking on the 2020 Blue America Primary A Blue Dog thermometer on the right. his isn't about personalities or just getting rid of the odious Jim Costa. It is also about Medicare-for-All, the Green New Deal, affordable housing, debt-free college, criminal justice reform and whether California is going to send another conservative Democrat to Congress like Ami Bera, Pete Aguilar, Julia Brownley, Lou Correa and Scott Peters or someone who is going to stand up with Barbara Lee, Ro Khanna and Ted Lieu. Esmeralda Soria is a Dianne Feinstein Democrat. Is that good enough? Or do you want another member of Congress who has endorsed Bernie and is running on much of his platform?



Kim Williams' Letter:

I know several other people have reached out besides Kevin [Hall] to folks with the Courage Campaign. [Soria] has a terrible track record with environmentalists and homeless advocates, and she is not known as a progressive here by any actual progressives.

Those who are progressive know that Soria came up the ranks under well known conservatives in the Valley, and from the very beginning of this race, she has identified as a centrist. In fact, at our first meeting, she told me directly that I was further left than her and she thought we could help each other. Since that time last summer, we've done several candidate forums together and I've never heard her articulate a single word of progressive policy on anything from labor to healthcare. She frequently misstates basic facts and runs from hard questions around policies considered too far left by right-leaning Democrats. If she would have come out as a progressive, I would have dropped out of the race and supported her a long time ago. She never did.

My friends and I have knocked on nearly 6,000 doors and every time we passed out literature for my campaign, we shared Bernie's literature because our platforms have aligned from the start. I also endorsed him after he was hospitalized and pundits tried to say he was done.  We've backed progressive policies when it was unheard of in the Valley and even risky to do so. And we've paid for it in several ways. I've walked out of fundraising events without one dollar because I supported Bernie for president and a Green New Deal. We've been completely ignored by the local media which won't cover 500 people at an impeachment rally but will print astonishingly sexists op-eds because they want to reflect all view points. We have gone up against an ocean of structural bias and every manner of low-grade corruption in this race, but we never wavered in our support for progressive policies.

There's a reason PDA national, you, Our Revolution's local chapter, and DSA (who is expected to announce this weekend) have all backed this policy-driven campaign. We are showing up in all the forgotten places no other candidate has visited, and we are boldly backing a progressive policy platform that she quite publicly runs from. It’s why we have the progressive volunteer base that shows up every weekend. They understand, and frequently state,that if Soria doesn’t have the backbone to support Medicare for All and a Green New Deal at a debate, then she won’t fight for it when the Washington lobbyists come calling.

What has happened is unfortunate, and I get why someone outside the district might come to the conclusion that she’s progressive, especially when she calls herself one in front of progressive groups. But if you step outside the small circle of Fresno’s political class of older Democrats who speak Republican and insiders who embrace transactional politics, you will find hundreds of thousands of people living in poverty who are in desperate need of change.

This is why I entered this race, and this is why I stayed. We knew from the beginning this would be a David and Goliath battle but I wanted to shine a light on the horrific poverty that plagues this district and demand a progressive economic solution. Party insiders, of which Soria is very much a part, may shape the public narrative which has no doubt influenced the referenced poll I've never seen, but they do not speak for the masses. They are part of the political neglect that has denied the experiences of so many struggling families and are surprised by the fact that Bernie and his “far left” policies are resonating so loudly with a base of voters that needs housing, healthcare, and jobs. Soria is not backing Bernie now because she is brave, she’s doing it because he’s rising in the polls.

I wish the Courage Campaign could have connected with Emily Brandt, who wrote three in-depth pieces on each Democratic candidate in the race. She spent hours going over policy with Soria, and she would not commit to Medicare for All. They could have also checked with James Williams and Bill Hess with PDA's local club who know her long history of rising up through the ranks under conservatives and could speak to Soria’s public remarks on healthcare. And I wished someone could have connected with the young Democrats at UCMerced when she told them Medicare for All was impossible to achieve.

From my view, and I know I speak as a competitor, the Courage Campaign did not endorse a woman of courage who will defend progressive policies. They endorsed a woman who whispers support for Medicare for All in closed rooms and then reverts to conservative talking points when she's in front of establishment Democrats. She doesn't even support it on her website. I'd also add that whatever success she's found so far has been achieved through personal connections and by catering to the establishment. If someone is hoping that she'll cross the finish line by embracing progressive polices now that the progressives have done the hard work of proving there's a appetite for such a thing, can they really be sure she'll deliver in Washington?

Regardless of how this email is taken, I care about nothing more than lifting our families out of poverty. From the day I arrived, I knew I could leave. But I stayed because I knew there were thousands of families here that could not escape countless neighborhoods that literally resembled third world counties. I didn't care one bit about who moved the policies forward, I just wanted change no one else was calling for. Soria is part of the insider club that has helped maintain the status quo and I have no faith that she will deliver on any promise she might make now. 

Please feel free to pass my number along if anyone would like to discuss this race further.

All my best,

Kim

It Would Be Great To See Blue Dog Jim Costa Replaced In Congress-- But Not With Another Blue Dog

Sometimes people ask me who the single worst Democrat in Congress is. Until very recently, I had never even thought it was Pelosi. Last session it was unquestionably Kyrsten Sinema, the genuinely mentally unbalanced Blue Dog from Arizona, who is currently the single worst Democrat in the Senate. This cycle it has been Josh Gottheimer, Blue Dog, grotesquely corrupt Wall Street whore, New Dem, tool of the murderous Saudi regime and chair of the Problem Solvers Caucus. So far this session, Gottheimer's 26.32 ProgressivePunch crucial vote score can be compared to Justin Amash, a Republican until 2 weeks ago when he became an independent and whose score is 60.53.

But looking beyond just raw scores there are always 3 or 4 Blue Dogs on the band side of everything important, Trump enablers and enemies of working families and progressive values, Thank God just one is here in California, sex predator and Blue Dog Jim Costa, who represents the 16th district in the Central Valley. The district has a sweet D+9 PVI and Trump only managed 36.4% there. One of the poorest districts in the country (the 412th poorest out of 435), it is a Latino majority district (59.2%) and only 23.5% white.

Costa, like Devin Nunes, is the grandchild of Portuguese immigrants who went into dairy farming. He was elected to the state Assembly in 1978, where he was widely considered the worst and most right-wing Democrat in the legislature. When he was finally term-limited out in 2002 he became a corporate lobbyist. But then his local New Dem congressman, Cal Dooley, retired 2 years later to become a K Street lobbyist himself. Costa-- despite an arrest for hiring teenage hookers-- one of whom was an undercover cop-- and despite drug paraphernalia found in his home, won the primary.

Costa's congressional district, CA-16, includes most of the city of Fresno, all of Merced County and a piece of Madera County. Aside from Fresno, the population centers are Merced, Madera, Chowchilla and Los Banos. Costa, who engenders zero enthusiasm among Democratic base voters, has been on shaky ground recently. In 2010, Republican Andy Vidak's challenge was so strong that, despite Costa outspending him $2,076,986 to $891,826, it took 3 weeks of recounts before Costa was declared the winner by 3,050 votes. 2014 was even worse for Costa. With no help from the GOP whatsoever, dairyman Johnny Tacherra-- outspent by Costa $1,116,677 to $342,204-- was declared the winner on election night. A shady recount in Fresno handed the final tally to Costa 46,277 (50.7%) to 44,943 (49.3%). Costa's foolish and dysfunctional response to these close calls has been to tack further and further right.

His Trump affinity score is 34.4%, second worst of any Democrats', having voted, for example, to support ICE, to roll back Dodd Frank protections, to allow guns in schools, to allow for racial profiling by auto finance companies, against opening impeachment hearings (twice), reauthorizing warrantless wiretapping of American citizens under FISA, for attempts to repeal Obamacare, removing antitrust exemption for insurance companies, for Trump's scheme to hobble regulatory agencies, for repealing a rule requiring energy companies to reduce waste and emissions, and against Climate Change efforts involving ozone standards... Whenever there are Democrats crossing the aisle to support the GOP, you can always expect Costa to be among them. After he voted for the TPP (which included $700 million in cuts to Medicare), Blue America sent our lovely accountability truck (below) to drive around Modesto, Merced, Atwater, Livingston and Fresno, you know,  to spend a couple of weeks reminding voters in the district what Congressman Costa is all about. We sent the truck out again when he was one of the only Democrats in Congress to continue funding the genocide in Yemen.

So... you'd think it would be a dream come true to see Costa with a primary challenge. And, in a way it is. First I heard Kim Williams, a college professor and former foreign service diplomat was taking him on and more recently Fresno City Council member Esmeralda Soria declared that she's running. (The Republicans have a real estate agent, Kevin Cookingham, in the jungle primary.) I've tried getting in touch with both Williams and Soria but neither has responded. As far as I can tell, Williams is a bit to the left of Costa and Soria is pretty much exactly the same, politically, as he is.





Late last week, the Fresno Bee took a look at Soria's announcement of her campaign. "Fresno City Councilmember Esmeralda Soria," reported Brianna Calix, "announced on Thursday she is running to represent California’s 16th Congressional District. Soria, a Democrat born to Mexican immigrant farm laborers in the Tulare County town of Lindsay, is in her second and final term on the city council. Soria’s political strength in Fresno could make her the most formidable challenge of Costa’s career."

After Soria’s announcement, Costa said he was disappointed in her decision and pointed to her past endorsements. He said in the last eight months they’ve met for lunch, coffee and social events and she never shared any major criticisms or disagreements with him.

Costa said his record will help him win again as it has in prior elections.

“I always work very hard every day to help people in our Valley,” he said in a telephone interview with The Bee. “…I always put my trust and faith in the voters of the Valley. This is my home and this is what my passion is.”

Costa’s victories over the years have come from his strong voter base in Fresno, while he lost ground in Republican-dominated rural areas like Merced County’s west side. Much of Soria’s council district in south-central Fresno falls within the 16th Congressional District, and she’s made allies with the other Democrat council members representing the southern parts of the city.

Soria also enters the race at a time when people of color are gaining traction in Fresno and challenging the political establishment in ways similar to what Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez accomplished in New York through grassroots organizing and community activism.

In an interview with The Bee, Soria never uttered Costa’s name, saying her congressional bid isn’t about her opponent or partisan politics. “I’m focused on who I represent,” she said. “People want a fair shot. They don’t want a handout.”

Costa, a 67-year-old Blue Dog Democrat, has faced one Democratic challenger since his first bid for Congress in the 2004 primary, Steve Hazei n 2010.


...Whether Soria can beat the veteran politician could depend largely on early fundraising. She said she won’t take any corporate money for her campaign.

Meanwhile, Costa in his last election accepted money from PACs and corporations such as Chevron, Google, Comcast, McDonald’s and Wal-Mart, plus various agriculture or labor-related groups. Costa also is likely to receive fundraising support from other longtime and high-profile California Democrats.

Costa touted his long list of endorsements from the state’s top leaders, including Gov. Gavin Newsom, Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Kamala Harris and Attorney General Xavier Becerra, as well as members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus. Many have committed to coming to the Valley to help him campaign, he said.

Soria may not be well-known outside of Fresno and her hometown in Tulare County, but the 37-year-old millennial said her background as the daughter of immigrants from a rural community will help her connect with voters in Merced and Madera.


Soria said she was inspired to run by her family’s personal stories and the ones she’s heard from city constituents, former interns and students she’s taught as an adjunct faculty member at Fresno City College.

“My family and the thousands of families here in the Valley that continue to struggle, they’ve worked hard, they’ve played by the rules and they give back. Yet, to this date, they’re barely making ends meet,” she said. “Things haven’t changed. The economy has gotten better. Our unemployment rate has decreased, but not enough. There’s still too many families that are struggling to make ends meet.”

On the issue of health care, Soria wants more affordable options, saying everyone should be able to have similar health care plans as representatives in Congress.

Immigration is a top issue for Soria, who once planned to be an immigration attorney. She called the immigration system broken and said she supports a path to citizenship for Dreamers, a guest worker program for seasonal workers, and condemned the current border crisis, saying “we can’t continue to allow these kids to be in cages.”

Affordable college and student loan debt is another top issue for Soria, who said she’s personally saddled with $150,000 debt from law school.

While Soria avoided directly criticizing Costa in her interview with The Bee, she added: “I wouldn’t be running if those issues were fixed.”


Costa pointed to his voting record to support water needs, transportation infrastructure, reducing prescription drug prices and working with state assemblymembers to bring a medical school to the Valley.

She touted her record at City Hall, helping spur job growth and fix neighborhood problems such as paving roads, building parks, advocating for affordable housing and holding more than 40 community meetings.

Soria’s council colleague Garry Bredefeld recently criticized her for a trip to Washington, D.C., where she met with Ocasio-Cortez. “AOC,” as she’s known online, has been described as a Democratic Socialist and also challenged a longtime Democratic incumbent in her district, where she represents Queens and the Bronx in New York.

While Soria vocally supports some progressive issues such as immigration reform and race-related issues, she’s also supported law enforcement and has been recognized for being “business friendly” while on the Fresno City Council.

The idea of Soria painting herself as a progressive is patently absurd. One actual progressive politician in Fresno told me she is basically Costa with a skirt and "every bit another Blue Dog-in-the-making."