You Know What They Say About Old Dogs And New Tricks-- Meet Crooked Conservative, Ro Khanna

Republicans know they will never win the CA-17 congressional seat. It's way too educated, way too blue for them, D+20. So wealthy GOP plutocrats are bankrolling a sleazy, conservative fake Democrat, Ro Khanna to run against beloved progressive icon Mike Honda. It won't work any more than Khanna's past ridiculous races against Democrats Tom Lantos and Pete Stark. Khanna doesn't care what district he represents, just as long as he can get into Congress and push his Austerity agenda and the elitist programs his Republican donors love.

Yesterday Khanna released his first TV ad, financed by his multimillionaire and billionaire backers, and it is highly deceptive. "Here’s my promise to you: I will never take money from corporations or lobbyists." He's taking money from the worst financial predators funneling dirty money into American politics, like Romney's 47% host Marc Leder and crooked Republican billionaire Peter Thiel. His campaign is being bankrolled by Facebook's Sheryl Sandberg, Google's Eric Schmidt and Yahoo's Marissa Mayer. In fact, Ro Khanna is the ultimate candidate of the self-entitled one percent, lying his ass off in an expensive ad.



Ro Khanna's sleazy character can be traced all the way back through all his endeavors in politics. In fact, the San Mateo Times disclosed that even when he ran for president of his student body, his crooked nature was on full display. This is from February 28, 2004, when Khanna was working his smear tactics on Tom Lantos:

Newcomer congressional candidate Ro Khanna has positioned himself as a fresh voice against incumbent Tom Lantos, but the 27-year old's first run for public office ended with a good, old-fashioned political scandal.

Back in 1996 as an undergraduate at the University of Chicago, a 20-year old Khanna won a race for student government president as part of a liberal party called Students First!, according to reports in the University's student newspaper. [Isn't that Michelle Rhee's anti-education outfit?]

But the victory quickly turned sour, as a rival party accused Students First! of overspending a $275 limit during Khanna's run. The school's elections committee launched an investigation into the charges and Khanna quickly resigned.

In a mea culpa published in an open letter in the student newspaper, Khanna admitted wrongdoing: "We did overspend the budget, and that in itself is unacceptable since it may have influenced the results of the election."

In another story, Khanna said he did not purposefully violate the campaign rules. After concluding its report, the elections committee found Students First! deliberately misled the committee and exceeded the spending limits, according to newspaper reports.

…It is probably any Democrats' worst nightmare heading into the final days of a tough primary-- Bill Clinton bashing your candidacy. But that's exactly what happened to Khanna on Thursday.

Clinton got steamed after Khanna sent out a mailer featuring his photo and comments he made to Khanna at an event. Clinton said Khanna did not have his permission to use the photo and comments, and it created the impression that the former President had endorsed the candidate.

Clinton wasn't satisfied with telling Khanna to cease-and-desist, he took the unusual step of endorsing Khanna's rival Congressman Tom Lantos because of the flap. Clinton said he generally does not endorse candidates in primaries.

"I regret that Ro Khanna has misled the people of the 12th District in this mailing," Clinton said in a press release.

President Obama has also made it clear that he's backing Honda and not Khanna, after Khanna attempted to mislead people into believing that because a few former low-ranking Obama operatives were taking his paychecks, Obama was behind him. Obama immediately invited Honda in for a photo session and released this statement: "Congressman Mike Honda is the right leader for the 17th district. Together, we’ve worked hard these last four years to bring meaningful, positive change to our nation, but there is much more to do. As we continue rebuilding our economy from the middle out, we know expanding educational opportunities is critical. Congressman Honda's lifelong commitment to education and fierce advocacy for innovation and technology is exactly what this nation needs as we continue to move America forward. We need Congressman Mike Honda in the United States Congress, and I urge you to vote to keep him there."

By the way, after reading the San Mateo Times article, I managed to find a contemporary piece in the University of Chicago student newspaper, the Chicago Maroon (November 12, 1996) in which Khanna, confronted with the facts, admitted he had deliberately doctored receipts to hide the evidence that his campaign had exceeded spending limits. He had to testify in front of a student judicial committee:

Rohit Khanna, the original Students First! (SF) Presidential candidate, appeared before the committee to give some much needed answers to several key questions of the committee.

Khanna admitted that he and fellow candidates Shaz Rasul and David Ortiz deliberately doctored receipts that were submitted during the original Elections and Rules (E and R) committee investigation of the first Spring Quarter election. The receipts were altered to hide the fact that the SF campaign overspent on its campaign.

Khanna refused to answer what he called “hearsay” questions, “What they are doing by spreading hearsay is worse than the actions themselves,” he said… Khanna said he eventually confessed because he felt it was “regrettable and wrong that we overspent and didn’t get in the receipts.” Khanna said that, while he never lied to the E and R committee in his testimony, he made a “conscious attempt to cover up the spending.”

Today Khanna is making a conscious effort to mislead Democrats and independents about his positions, about where he gets his financing and, worst of all, about an honorable man of great integrity who has served this country well, Mike Honda. You may remember that last cycle, one of Blue America's most conspicuous victories was in helping Pennsylvania progressive Matt Cartwright oust a Ro Khanna type ConservaDem, Tim Holden, like Khanna, from the Republican wing of the Democratic Party. Since then, Cartwright, the president of Congress' freshman class, has been an exemplary progressive and is one of the most well-liked Members of Congress. His feelings for Honda are heartfelt and deep:

Mike Honda is a great American, and one of our living icons in the Democratic ranks of the United States House of Representatives. In much the same way that Rep. John Lewis of Georgia is a living, breathing reminder of the civil rights struggles of the 1960s, Rep. Honda of California takes us back even further, to the 1940s of the Japanese-American internment camps. I often mention with pride that a Pennsylvanian, Justice Owen Roberts, dissented, in Korematsu v. United States, the Supreme Court decision that upheld the constitutionality of the Executive Order creating those internment camps. Mike Honda, born in 1941, spent his early childhood years in an internment camp in California.

…Nelson Mandela once said that “resentment is like drinking poison and then hoping it will kill your enemies.” Mike Honda could easily have turned to resentment or bitterness over the mind-boggling unfairness of his family’s wartime internment. Instead, he has devoted his life to the positive and uplifting work of making America a more just, more peaceful, and more progressive nation. I am deeply honored to be a fellow member of the House Democratic Caucus with Mike Honda, and even prouder to serve alongside him in the Congressional Progressive Caucus. I urge my fellow Democrats to support Representative Honda’s reelection in whatever way you can.

What has Ro Khanna ever done other than to step on other people to claw his way up the ladder? Read Matt Cartwright's words again and take his advise here.

The Future of The Democratic Party-- Mike Honda vs Ro Khanna

I don't know which e-mails leaked by Wikileaks are real and which are Russian propaganda, which are doctored or which are actual evidence of something-- like John Podesta's refreshingly healthy interest in extraterrestrial life. The leaked e-mail about the race in CA-17 is very unlikely to be Russian propaganda or in any way tampered with and I left it was just too important to let slip away unremarked on.

A little background first, starting with the fact that Blue America has endorsed progressive workhorse Mike Honda and very much rejected slick, conservaDem Ro Khanna. As we've pointed out before, Republicans know they will never win the seat (northern San Jose, Berryessa, Santa Clara, Cupertino, Sunnyvale, Milpitas, Fremont, Newark). It's way too educated, way too blue for them, D+20. So wealthy GOP plutocrats, like Marc Leder and Trump Supreme Court dream, crackpot Peter Thiel, have bankrolled sleazy, conservative fake Dem, Ro Khanna to run against beloved progressive icon Mike Honda.

The other piece of background is a bit about Steven Spinner, who wrote this e-mail below to John Podesta in May of 2015. Spinner was a major Obama bundler and the Campaign Chairman for Ro Khanna's failed congressional bid in 2014. He was also the crook behind the Solyndra loan controversy and has successfully used his political connections to avoid being criminally charged.

In 2014, Honda beat Khanna 69,561 (52%) to 64,847 (48%). In this year's primary, Khanna came out slightly ahead-- 33,785 (38.3%) to 33,608 (38.1%) and the two face off again next week in the general election. As of last week, Khanna had spent $3,303,700 and Honda had spent $2,388,677. A dark money SuperPAC had spent an additional $379,523 for Khanna, including $67,813 last week smearing Honda. (A quarter million dollar of the poisonous PAC money comes from 2 of the most despicable excuses for Democrats from Obama-finance-world, notorious anti-education billionaire vampires John and Laura Arnold of Houston.) Now, the e-mail in question, subject line thanks & next steps:

John,

Thanks for meeting with me today. Great chatting about a number of topics. I am excited about helping, in any way I can, to make sure the Clinton campaign gets the enthusiastic support of Silicon Valley tech community, past Obama donors, and the South Asian community.

I also appreciate that you understand the need to solve the Khanna-Honda issue. It's about the future of our Party and also about maximizing support for Hillary Clinton in a big way this cycle. I was inspired enough to share a few thoughts we discussed for your reference.

John, you are one of the few statesmen in our Party with the stature and vision to solve this. I know it's the right thing to do, a legacy issue for our party, and will pay dividends for the Clintons for many years.

Let me know your thoughts, John. See you late tomorrow afternoon.

Best,
Steve


*I. *
*Ro Khanna is the first true Silicon Valley candidate. *Ro, who is 38, has received the support of over 600 technology and financial leaders, more than six times what President Obama received in 2012. This includes both Democrats and Republicans such as Eric Schmidt, John Doerr, Paul Otellini, Sheryl Sandberg, Marissa Mayer, Ron Conway, Vinod Khosla, Sean Parker, Marc Andreessen, Peter Thiel, Marc Benioff, Steve Luczo, George Roberts, Marc Lasry, and Andy Spahn. Ro has raised nearly $5 million in two years without any help from party committees or elected members/officials. In this cycle, Ro’s tech and South Asian donors can be a source of at least $50 million for the Democratic Party in national races. Over 70% of Ro’s donors were first time donors, and many will be inspired to give big once Ro wins (or earlier if we can convince Honda to retire & pass the baton to Ro).

*II. *
*Mike Honda’s campaign attacked the tech community. *In a desperate effort to win, Mike Honda put out TV ads calling Ro’s tech supporters “right wing millionaires and billionaires.” He darkened Ro’s skin, put dots on his forehead, and accused him of shipping jobs overseas. Honda’s slash and burn campaign tactics are hurting the Democratic Party with the tech community at a time when Republican Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, Senator Rand Paul, and Governor Jeb Bush are out in Silicon Valley every few months courting the community. Many of Ro’s tech supporters have been deeply offended by Honda’s tactics.

*III. **Ro Khanna represents the South Asian diaspora.*
Ro’s grandfather, Amarnath Vidhyalankar, spent four years in jail during the Indian Independence movement alongside Gandhi. Ro was born in Philadelphia in a middle class family, went to public school, and then to University of Chicago and Yale Law School. He wrote a book on the American economy published by McGraw-Hill, and now teaches at Stanford in the Economics Department as a Lecturer. His story has struck a nerve with the diaspora. He will be the first Indian American to keep his Hindu faith elected in the history of our nation. The district he is running in has the second largest Indian American population in the nation. *The South Asian community looks at what the party has done to promote the Castro brothers or Cory Booker and wonder why the party can't help Ro cross the finish line to get into Congress. They are frustrated that the Republicans have helped Bobby Jindal and Nikki Haley.*

*IV. *
*Ro Khanna has a clear path to victory in November of 2016. *Starting from 3%, Ro got to 48.2 percent of the vote in a low turnout election in 2014. In a Presidential year, many more independents and young voters will turn out. Honda, 74, has since fallen asleep on the House floor on CNN during the Homeland Security debate. Ro has outraised Honda 3:1 in the first quarter (Ro raised $801,000 to Honda’s $258,000). Honda also has nearly $90,000 of debt and is struggling to compete financially. Ro is expected to raise $4 million+ again for the cycle –this is effort and money that could be far better spent on the Presidential race helping Secretary Clinton win.

*V. *
*Ro Khanna has been a loyal supporter of Hillary Clinton unlike Mike Honda. *Ro worked with Amy Rao and Jonathan Mantz to help Hillary Clinton in 2008 and before that supported HillPac. He did a number of fundraisers in the South Asian community for Hillary Clinton throughout 2008. He also traveled to Pennsylvania, Iowa, Texas, and the Every Vote Counts rally for Hillary Clinton in 2008. In contrast, despite President Clinton’s support for Mike Honda in his first run for Congress, Honda stayed out of the 2008 primary and did not support Hillary Clinton.

*VI. *
*Request for Action Items: *

*A. *As HRC Campaign Chair, could call Honda and make it clear to him that his running is not good for the Party and the Clintons would look favorably upon it if he passed the baton to Ro and focused on getting Hillary elected President.

*B. *Have President Clinton come out for an event for Ro or endorse Ro’s candidacy (Senator Michael Bennet came out for an event in Q1). This would end the race and would be a tremendous legacy for the President given his passion for India and the Indian American community.

*C. *Speak to Leader Pelosi (she is very fond of Ro). Request her to encourage Anna Eshoo (Honda’s neighboring Congresswoman) to endorse Ro. Anna's very supportive of Ro and will be inclined to endorse if she has a green light from Pelosi. Encourage Pelosi also to dual endorse both Ro and Mike this time. That also could end the race if done early.

*D. * Have Secretary Clinton make a positive, casual statement at a fundraiser about Ro’s leadership with the tech and South Asian community. That would be an incredible signal short of endorsing. Make it clear to Honda that Ro would be allowed to use photos of Secretary Clinton in campaign material if Honda insists on running.

*E. *Honda is likely to vote against the TPP despite the White House's wishes. Ro has come out for it. The White House could make it clear to Honda that the President would dual endorse this time.

*F. *Honda is a Party guy who owes his seat in 2000 to Bill Clinton and Nancy Pelosi. If he knows he has lost the Party support from Party leaders, he will not run and will be inclined to pass the baton to the next generation of Asian American leadership.

That hasn't happened and Honda is in a very tight race against Khanna, who represents, literally, everything that's wrong with the Democratic Party. Mike has, once again, been endorsed by the California Democratic Party, by both Senators-- the conservative Feinstein and liberal Boxer-- (as well as by Kamala Harris), by Pelosi, by the Congressional Progressive Caucus and by virtually the entire California congressional delegation. Ro Khanna has been endorsed by Gavin Newsom and the rest of the sleazy Republican wing of the Democratic Party. No Members of Congress have endorsed him, although there have been rumors that Darrell Issa, who also endorsed Loretta Sanchez and has been desperately trying to rally Republicans and other Trump supporters to back corrupt right-wing Democrats, would. Please give as generously as you can by tapping on the thermometer below-- and note the company Honda keeps, very different than the Debbie Wasserman Schultzes and Joe Crowleys you'd see Khanna with.

UPDATE FROM PAUL CLEMENTS

Today Bernie makes two stops in Michigan, first in Kalamazoo and then in Traverse City. The Blue America-endorsed candidate in MI-06, Paul Clements, will be introducing Bernie in a few hours. His new campaign ad is very aggressive, something his GOP opponent has earned:



Please consider contributing to Paul's campaign here. A few minutes ago he shared his feelings about today with us:

Today I get to introduce the hero of the 2016 election cycle, Bernie Sanders, at my university. I am deeply honored. In the summer of 2015 when I gave the first speech of my congressional campaign I talked about the three issues Bernie was running on: economic inequality, money in politics, and climate change. It was like, he was telling my story, and giving me the courage to focus on the big issues, the deep changes our country needs in the cause of social justice. This is not to belittle other issues, such as racial justice, that are certainly critical. But if we consider the really deep threats to our democracy, well, Bernie was right on target.

Now it is clear that to maintain the possibility of progress we must elect Hillary president. This is, well, just so obvious. And looking to the future, well, Bernie is getting on in years. In terms of policy, he made our party’s national platform the most progressive ever, and Bernie and Elizabeth (and I, if elected) will of course press forward here. But this is Bernie’s gift to us: he has restored and updated a vision of what our democracy can be. What government of, by and for the people looks like in our time.

Now it’s up to us to carry this vision forward.

A Republican Could Never Defeat Mike Honda-- So A Democrat With A Republican Economic Perspective Is Primarying Him

Mike

Writing at BlueTheNation, Jonathan Nathan makes the point that "One of the most important races of the 2014 election cycle is one you’re not likely to hear an awful lot about, at least not from the sort of pop-politics talking heads one finds on the news networks and cable channels and major blogs. That’s because it’s an intra-party race between two Democrats. Seven-term incumbent Mike Honda is being challenged by Ro Khanna, a techie, a professor, and a former member of the Obama Administration." Here at DWT, of course, we've been covering this race carefully, primarily because Honda has been such a crucial and effective leader of the Progressive Caucus.

Honda has been a strong fighter on behalf of regular American families-- the ones that don't have the resources to hire their own slick K Street lobbyists or to bribe congressmembers with huge campaign contributions. Virtually the entire California Democratic House delegation has joined President Obama and California's two U.S. Senators, Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer in endorsing Honda. Nancy Pelosi led the way as soon as Ro Khanna announced he was running:

"Congressman Mike Honda's life has been a tribute to the quintessential American ideals of equality and opportunity for all. From a childhood spent in an internment camp, Mike has risen to the heights of American leadership-- as one of the top Democrats on the powerful Appropriations Committee and a critical voice for fairness, the rights of LGBT couples and all families. Mike is a bold and effective leader who understands the needs of Silicon Valley and the 17th District, ensuring American competitiveness and fighting for American manufacturing, comprehensive immigration reform, STEM education and technological innovation. We need his continued leadership for our nation in the House of Representatives, and I am proud to endorse him."

Obama, for whom Khanna worked at one time, was also very clear about who he's supporting in this primary: "Congressman Mike Honda is the right leader for the 17th district. Together, we’ve worked hard these last four years to bring meaningful, positive change to our nation, but there is much more to do. As we continue rebuilding our economy from the middle out, we know expanding educational opportunities is critical. Congressman Honda's lifelong commitment to education and fierce advocacy for innovation and technology is exactly what this nation needs as we continue to move America forward. We need Congressman Mike Honda in the United States Congress, and I urge you to vote to keep him there."

What's especially interesting about the Obama and Pelosi endorsements, is that Honda is considerably further left than either of them. A representative of Silicon Valley with it's giant tech corporations, he's always been an unstinting champion of working families and ordinary Americans, not of tech multimillionaires and billionaires, which is something Khanna is trying to take advantage of. Honda, who was the principal author of the Progressive Caucus budget in 2011 and one of the authors of their budget this year, has been an outspoken critic of Chained CPI and has pledged to oppose it (and all cuts to benefits for seniors and veterans). He signed the Grayson Takano No Cuts letter and can be counted on to help counter the extreme right... rather than compromise with it's predatory designs-- which is what Khanna and his backers believe in as an article of faith.

Endorsement from President Obama or not, Honda has been adamant that he's not buying into the arguments that Obama, Boehner, McConnell and Ro Khanna have made for cutting Social Security by using a scheme called Chained CPI.

"I believe, as millions of other Americans do, that our deficits are a problem that deserves our attention, but Social Security spending is not the cause of our deficits. Any attempts to draw down our debt should be done in a sensible, responsible way, and not on the back of those who can least afford it-- struggling American families, seniors, veterans-- including our 3.2 million disabled veterans, individuals with disabilities, and children on survivors’ benefits.

"I'm eager to see what protections the President’s proposal has for vulnerable populations, but I am wary because every chained CPI proposal I’ve seen would affect veterans, people with disabilities, seniors on fixed incomes, and would institute compounding benefit cuts that would hurt future retirees harder as time goes on. The average annual Social Security benefit for retirees amounts to a very modest $15,000, yet one-third of seniors rely on Social Security for 90 percent of their income. These seniors cannot afford any reductions. As we face a looming retirement security crisis, with the majority of our workforce lacking private pensions and over one-third of all workers unable to save any money at all for retirement, we should be working together to make Social Security stronger, not weaker, to make our future retirees more secure.

"Americans all over the country depend on every single dollar they get from Social Security for the food on their table, and the roofs over their backs. At a time when so many of our Americans are already struggling, I strongly oppose benefit cuts to Social Security and will work with my colleagues to ensure that our government fulfills its promise to its future retirees."

Nathan presents 5 solid arguments regarding why everyone should care about Honda overcoming the financial odds and beating Khanna.

1) Ro Khanna has never occupied an elected office.

One of the narratives that Khanna and his team are already spinning is that of “the Washington outsider.” They’re styling Khanna as the San Francisco Bay Area’s very own miniature Barack Obama. Americans love that whole song and dance about “outsiders” in politics for the same reason they love the one about how you can’t trust the experts. During the 2008 Democratic primary campaign, Bill Richardson famously hit back at Obama’s “outsider” narrative by asking the pointed question, “When did experience become a leper?” As in, why is it now a bad thing that somebody has dedicated his or her life to doing something well?

Ro Khanna has been a government official and a professor, but he has never been an elected policymaker. There’s a reason most politicians start with the state legislature. Obviously it’s not a required prerequisite, but if you have the choice between an experienced policymaker that hasn’t done anything his constituents don’t like and a guy who’s never been elected to anything, don’t you pick the first guy?

2) Khanna is the tech industry’s man.

The tech industry is just the worst. They’re a bunch of Ayn Rand cultists who have passed themselves off as progressives because they support progressive viewpoints on social issues. But they are very very very bad news on fiscal issues. They support immigration reform but only for skilled tech workers. They want to deregulate everything in the name of “market disruption,” never mind that regulations keep people from dying. They’re destroying public transportation infrastructure with private buses. They’re a nightmare. Ro Khanna will be the tech industry’s Congressman, which means he will not be a progressive. He will be what we in the Bay Area have politely agreed to call a “moderate Democrat.” What that means is that anywhere else, he’d be a Republican who doesn’t hate gay people, but for political expediency he’s calling himself a Democrat.

3) Khanna’s campaign is a waste of valuable campaign resources.

Much has been made, in Khanna’s media and marketing blitz, of all the big “gets” for his campaign. He’s assembled quite a dream team of former high-ranking Obama campaign staffers. So why are these people wasting their time trying to oust an incumbent Democrat, and a progressive one at that, rather than defending a vulnerable Democrat or working to unseat a vulnerable Republican? How many seats in Congress will we lose–or not pick up–because these brilliant minds were wasting their time? Why are they doing this?

The answer is depressing, but predictable. Again, Khanna is the tech industry’s man and the tech industry worships “disruption.” So, too, do many of the folks who worked for the Obama campaigns. To them, attacking the establishment is what matters, not the substance of policy. Larry Grisolano, an Obama campaign strategist and Khanna supporter, told Bloomberg Businessweek that they gravitated toward Obama because nobody thought he could win. “But we thought we could build a movement around his personal story and vision for the future. That’s what attracted us to Obama. These people don’t come around every day. But we all have an excitement about races that have that possibility. I think that in Ro, there’s the sense that he’s that kind of candidate.” Notice that there’s no discussion of who Ro Khanna would be as a Congressman. No appeal to vote for him because he’s a progressive or because he’s a moderate or because he’ll push for this thing or he’ll push for that thing. It’s just a devotion to the idea of sticking it to the man. It’s childish. But as anyone who lives in the Bay Area can tell you, no word describes the tech industry–from top to bottom–better than “childish.”

4) Khanna is a big-money candidate who just wants the seat for its own sake.

It’s 2013. The primary isn’t until June of next year. But Ro Khanna raised a million bucks for his campaign warchest in the second quarter of this year. That’s unprecedented for a House race, and certainly for a House primary. This is a guy who just wants to be a Congressman because he thinks he ought to be, because he thinks the tech industry ought to have a guy in Congress, because he thinks his money and connections can buy the seat for him. You see it in the way people talk about him; specifically, that they talk only about him, not about issues. Negative campaigning against an opponent isn’t great, but puffing yourself up is no better. It still represents an unwillingness to actually engage with the voters on a serious level. Ro Khanna has nothing to say, at least nothing the Bay Area would want to hear. He just wants to be in Congress for the sake of being in Congress.

5) Mike Honda is the guy elected seven times by the voters of the district.

Mike Honda is a seven-term incumbent Congressman with a strong progressive record. His constituents like him. That should speak for itself. Unfortunately, money can be a powerful tool in a campaign. Constituents who like Mike Honda today might not like him after Khanna and his powerful friends spend their money. We saw it happen in 2012 to Pete Stark, one of the great liberal lions of the House, who was unseated by Eric Swalwell, a Blue Dog who rode a wave of Republican and conservative campaign contributions to victory.

This intra-party contest will not garner much national attention, but it represents just as much of a struggle for the soul of the Democratic Party as the 2016 Republican Presidential nomination battle will represent a struggle for the soul of the GOP. Will the Democrats be the party of people like Mike Honda, true progressives with a positive mission? Or will they be the party of people like Ro Khanna, disinterested libertarians who care only about power and influence and disruption for their own sake?

Khanna has been a fundraising machine and is far outraising Honda. In July, Politico reported that he already had $1.7 million in his warchest (compared to $375,000 for Honda). Help DWT even up those financial odds at bit... right here. This morning while I was writing this post, I asked a colleague of Mike Honda's, Alan Grayson, who many of us have come to respect and admire, for a comment on Honda's character as he experienced it. Grayson, aside from being a political leader, is one of my favorite American poets. But he told me he's like to use one of his favorite poets, William Wordsworth, to express his thoughts on Mike Honda:

Who is the happy Warrior? Who is he
         That every man in arms should wish to be?
         --It is the generous Spirit, who, when brought
         Among the tasks of real life, hath wrought
         Upon the plan that pleased his boyish thought:
         Whose high endeavours are an inward light
         That makes the path before him always bright:
         Who, with a natural instinct to discern
         What knowledge can perform, is diligent to learn;
         Abides by this resolve, and stops not there,
         But makes his moral being his prime care;
         Who, doomed to go in company with Pain,
         And Fear, and Bloodshed, miserable train!
         Turns his necessity to glorious gain;
         In face of these doth exercise a power
         Which is our human nature's highest dower;
         Controls them and subdues, transmutes, bereaves
         Of their bad influence, and their good receives:
         By objects, which might force the soul to abate
         Her feeling, rendered more compassionate;
         Is placable-- because occasions rise
         So often that demand such sacrifice;
         More skilful in self-knowledge, even more pure,
         As tempted more; more able to endure,
         As more exposed to suffering and distress;
         Thence, also, more alive to tenderness.

Let's keep Mike in Congress. You can help out here.

Has Ro Khanna’s Disgraceful Campaign Against Mike Honda Finally Flamed Out?

Khanna, a corporate Democrat eager to cut Social Security and Medicare benefits to lower the tax rates for his wealthy supporters, sounds like a Republican. And Republicans and conservative pseudo-Democrats have financed his jihad against progressive icon Mike Honda in the Silicon Valley. Plenty of rich Silicon Valley tycoons with far too much money are behind Khanna’s relentless bid for office. Many of the companies, like Google and Facebook, who have helped the NSA and CIA with unconstitutional domestic spying against their customers, are Khanna’s biggest contributors. Google, in fact, is his biggest single donor. Big money has flowed into his campaign from the Wall Street banksters as well, particularly from Morgan Stanley, venture capitalists Kleiner, Perkins, Goldman Sachs, Pershing Square Capital Management, US Venture Partners, Artiman Ventures, Sutter Hill Ventures and Cambrian Ventures. As of the last FEC filing deadline, banksters had shoveled $529,800 into Khanna’s campaign against Honda. Further Dark Money has poured into a slimy attack PAC formed specifically to smear Honda, the so-called “Californians for Innovation,” which spent $109,724 sending out misleading mailers just last week— bringing their total expenditure in CA-17 to $211,034 so far. The contributions to this group that are not secret come from wealthy Republicans eager to get Khanna into Congress and, especially, inside the Democratic House caucus. Enron crook and hedge fund billionaire John Arnold alone, who drools at the prospect of cutting pensions, gave $250,000. Another shady venture capitalist, Chamath Palihapitiya, one of Ted Cruz's biggest financial backers, is also pouring sacks of cash into smearing Honda.

Polls, however, don’t indicate that’s going to happen. The most recent polling was done last week by Lake Research and it not only shows a gigantic lead for Honda, it shows Khanna unable to even get to 30%— after spending millions of dollars. Worse yet, the new FEC report issued today shows that Khanna has basically burned through all those millions of dollars he’s collected and doesn’t even have enough funds to meet his payroll and rent for the remainder of the campaign— an indication that his vendors are about to be left holding the bag.

Khanna has spent around $4 million and has been unable to gain traction outside of the salons of the one percent. He spent three times more money than Honda in the primary and still lost by 20 points.

Yesterday, Howard Dean was horrified at Khanna’s latest right-wing-inspired attack on Honda as a liberal and sent a note warning DFA members about Khanna’s perfidy. Remember CA-17 is a solidly progressive district— other than in the rarified precincts where his rich donors live… who love the idea of Khanna, cutting and then privatizing Social Security. “Why would someone running as a Democrat,” asked Dean, “attack a fellow Democrat for wanting to repeal the reckless Bush tax cuts?” The mailer up top is what brought Dean— who has never attacked a fellow Democrat in a primary before— down this path.

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.



Let's show Ro Khanna that we won't tolerate his attacks from the right against a progressive Democrat who has been a hero for working families.

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.

Does The Silicon Valley Really Want A Serial Election Fraudster As A Congressman? Meet Ro Khanna

We've been doing some reporting here about what a sleazy character Ro Khanna is and how, from his earliest forays into politics, he's been subverting the rules to win. Predictably, Khanna is up to his old tricks in the CA-17 race against progressive icon Mike Honda. In their endorsement of Honda yesterday, the PCCC told their supporters that "Progressive Congressman Mike Honda is facing a conservative primary challenger on June 3 who calls himself a Democrat-- but is he really? Honda's opponent is open to cutting Social Security. And he opposes the congressional progressive budget that would tax millionaires, invest in jobs, and invest in education! Instead of fighting for progressive ideas, Honda's opponent says Democrats should try even harder to compromise with House Republicans." That's music to the ears of his wealthy Republican financiers.

Once Khanna betrayed India's fascist leader Narendra Modi, Modi operatives in the U.S. recruited a Republican, Vanila Singh, to run pulling conservative votes from him and making it look like he wouldn't make it out of the June 3 jungle primary. So Khanna recruited his own second Republican, Joel VanLandingham, to run against Singh. Josh Richman of the San Jose Mercury News has been reporting how Khanna supporters have been behind VanLandingham's campaign. Vanila Singh "insists Khanna and his supporters recruited VanLandingham to split the GOP vote and boost Khanna’s chances of getting into the June primary’s top two with Rep. Mike Honda. She has used this as an excuse for skipping candidate forums, saying she’ll not take part in any event in which VanLandingham participates."

Now comes new research from Margaret Okuzumi, a Honda supporter who is the Democratic Club of Sunnyvale’s incoming president.

Okuzumi claims Khanna’s campaign moved to “hijack” that club by having more than 45 of campaign staffers and supporters-- and even Khanna, who lives in Fremont-- become members in the latter half of last year in order to sway the endorsement vote.

“People would only do that if directed by a campaign to do so. Otherwise, they are hardly likely to know that our Democratic Club even exists or that our endorsement is considered of strategic importance, especially if they live as far away from Sunnyvale as Fremont,” she said. “I wouldn’t have minded as much if they’d actually recruited new people from Sunnyvale to join our club. Instead they recruited over 30 people who didn’t care about our city and who weren’t interested in our activities other than our endorsement.”

But Nancy Smith, the Sunnyvale club’s cofounder and former president, said Monday that Honda’s and Khanna’s campaigns both were notified of the club’s endorsement rules-– namely, that a person would have to sign up and attend at least one meeting before being allowed to take part in an endorsement vote. “I would have to say Ro’s campaign took that more seriously than Mike’s did,” she said.

The club eventually voted overwhelmingly not to endorse anyone in this race-– which some might see as a win for Khanna, given Honda’s incumbency.

However, five of those new Sunnyvale Democratic Club members-– including Shivani Sanan, Rajesh and Madhu Gupta, Priya Kapil and Tanu Kalra, all of Fremont-– later signed VanLandingham’s Alameda County nominating petitions, Okuzumi found. Another one, Mahesh Pakala, reportedly asked a Fremont couple affiliated with the temple to sign Vanlandingham’s petition. And several of VanLandingham’s petition-signers either themselves gave money-– more than $10,000 total-– to Khanna’s campaign or had immediate family members who did.

“Without Khanna campaign involvement, VanLandingham would not have received enough signatures to qualify for the ballot,” Okuzumi said.

“It’s clear that Ro Khanna’s supporters and donors made a concerted effort to help Republican Joel VanLandingham get on the ballot,” Honda campaign manager Doug Greven said in an email Monday. “If Ro Khanna himself really had nothing to do with this, he should publicly condemn his supporters who orchestrated this scheme, and refund the more than $10,000 in contributions he received from them.”

It's amazing that Khanna was caught in a campaign financial fraud case and forced to resign from office and then, a few years later, was caught lying, claiming he had been endorsed by Bill Clinton who was so angry that he endorsed his opponent and sent out a press release saying "I regret that Ro Khanna has misled the people of the 12th District in this mailing." Khanna doesn't learn from his errors and is at it again-- with a huge bankroll provided by some of the sleaziest anti-family right-winger financiers in American politics. Khanna's greasy attacks against Honda are something new. When he was trying to win seats in other districts, this is how he would talk about Honda:

Who Remembers Weasel Words? Interpreting Ro Khanna

We often hear Republicans-- particularly Paul Ryan and his cult followers-- saying things like “I don’t think we ought to be cutting benefits that have been promised to current seniors." The word "current" means the speaker wants to phase out Social Security for future generations, a very standard Republican Party position. But that particular quote I just transcribed, wasn't from Paul Ryan, one of his cult followers or even a registered Republican at all. It came from a certain breed of "Democrat" ungrounded in any of the principles or values of the Democratic Party. That quote came from Ro Khanna, the right-of-center Silicon Valley fundraiser/opportunist who has launched a scorched earth campaign against longtime progressive champion Mike Honda.

Honda has been a strong fighter on behalf of regular American families-- the ones that don't have the resources to hire their own slick K Street lobbyists or to bribe congressmembers with huge campaign contributions. Khanna... wait for it: "We need representatives that are willing to reach across the aisle and find common ground." That's another especially charged weasel phrase and it means giving in to hard right demands that the Republicans make. That mentality-- as well as Honda's record-- is why virtually the entire California Democratic House delegation has joined President Obama and California's two U.S. Senators, Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer in endorsing Honda. Nancy Pelosi led the way as soon as Khanna announced he was running:

“Congressman Mike Honda's life has been a tribute to the quintessential American ideals of equality and opportunity for all. From a childhood spent in an internment camp, Mike has risen to the heights of American leadership-- as one of the top Democrats on the powerful Appropriations Committee and a critical voice for fairness, the rights of LGBT couples and all families. Mike is a bold and effective leader who understands the needs of Silicon Valley and the 17th District, ensuring American competitiveness and fighting for American manufacturing, comprehensive immigration reform, STEM education and technological innovation. We need his continued leadership for our nation in the House of Representatives, and I am proud to endorse him.”

  Although another California fake "Dem" who has eagerly thrown in with the GOP at every opportunity-- Eric Swalwell-- has remained neutral, here are the California Members of Congress, spanning the ideological spectrum from Blue Dogs like Jim Costa and Loretta Sanchez and New Dems like Adam Schiff and Scott Peters to progressive warriors Barbara Lee, Xavier Becerra, Mark Takano and Judy Chu, who have endorsed Mike Honda's reelection:

Jared Huffman
John Garamendi
Mike Thompson
Doris Matsui
Ami Bera
Jerry McNerney
George Miller
Barbara Lee
Jackie Speier
Jim Costa
Zoe Lofgren
Sam Farr
Lois Capps
Julia Brownley
Judy Chu
Adam Schiff
Tony Cardenas
Brad Sherman
Grace Napolitano
Henry Waxman
Xavier Becerra
Gloria McLeod
Raul Ruiz
Karen Bass
Linda Sanchez
Lucille Roybal-Allard
Mark Takano
Maxine Waters
Janice Hahn
Loretta Sanchez
Alan Lowenthal
Juan Vargas
Scott Peters

Khanna first announced his campaign at De Anza College. But students there weren't taken him by his weasel words. Sunday, the student newspaper ran an opinion piece entitled Challenger to U.S. Rep. Mike Honda sidesteps Social Security in kick-off at DA.

Last Sunday former Obama White House cabinet official and Stanford educator Ro Khanna announced his campaign at a rally in the Sunken Gardens at De Anza for the 17th Congressional District, which encompasses a large part of Silicon Valley including Cupertino.

A crowd of 200 volunteers and supporters cheered as the youthful and exuberant Democrat announced he was running to help break the gridlock that has crippled politics in Washington.

“We need representatives that are willing to reach across the aisle and find common ground,” Khanna said.

Should Khanna win the election next year against the popular incumbent Mike Honda, questions remain over how far he would be willing to reach compromise with the Republican Party.

In exchange to pass his agenda, President Obama has introduced a budget that will radically reduce social insurance benefits to the aging population by recalculating the cost of living, potentially threatening those on Social Security most at risk of falling into poverty.

When asked where he stood on cutting social security benefits, Khanna danced around the question.

“I don’t think we ought to be cutting benefits that have been promised to current seniors,” Khanna said.

A popular talking point, “keeping promises to current seniors” is what most Democrats say when they don’t want to be held accountable for wanting to cut social insurance benefits.

A majority of the country favors preserving social security and trusts the Democratic Party more with entitlement programs over Republicans, who want to severely privatize them at the expense of society’s most vulnerable.

If you think that the Social Security issue does not affect you because you are far from retirement, think again.  If you are a wage earner, you are paying into the system and basically putting money into a fund that will hopefully be there for you in the future.

As students, we are living in precarious times of uncertain job markets, rising costs of living and inescapable student debt, and we have to ask ourselves if there will be a social safety net should things take a turn for the worse.

Honda believes that the new calculation “lowers earned Social Security benefits and would institute compounded benefit cuts that would hurt future retirees harder as time goes on,” according to his Facebook page. “We should be working together to make Social Security stronger not weaker.”

Honda has exhibited the type of leadership the Democratic Party needs on one of its core issues. His proven track record on the social compact is consistent, not compromising.

The most accurate polling firm in the business, Lake Research Partners, recently completed a survey of the 17th district (Cupertino, Sunnyvale, Santa Clara, Milpitas, North San Jose, Newark, Fremont, and Berryessa) and showed Honda with a staggering 52 point lead over Khanna. Khanna has raised over a million dollars, much of it from Silicon Valley multimillionaires.

Honda begins with 57% of the vote while Khanna has 5%. Republican Evelyn Li picks up 13% of open primary voters with 23% undecided. Honda’s lead remains strong, holding an absolute majority of votes, even after compare and contrast messaging is provided... Another noteworthy finding was that among voters who work in the tech industry, 56% support Honda, while only 6% support Khanna. Honda’s proven track record of supporting initiatives that benefit innovation, job growth, and an educated and diverse workforce have been noticed by the people he represents.

Who Remembers Romney's 47% Host, Marc Leder? Now He's Raising Money For Another Economic Reactionary, Ro Khanna

Shady billionaire-backed Ro Khanna primarying Mike Honda

Blue America has endorsed only 2 House incumbents facing reelection difficulty. And one, Mike Honda, represents Silicon Valley-- CA-17, a heavily Democratic area-- D+20 which Obama took with 72% last year. Honda even did better than that, beating his Republican opponent 74-26%, more than 100,000 votes separating them. The plutocratic interests in the district-- and across the country-- know they can't beat Honda, a lifelong staunch advocate for working families, with an outright Republican, so now they're trying to a stealth Republican, conservative fake Democrat Ro Khanna. He's pro-choice and pro-gay and all that but when it really counts, on matters of economic justice, he's as bad as any Republican and has already been out calling for reducing Social Security and Medicare benefits for retirees. (After that blew up in his face, he's trying to say whatever it takes to win.)

Khanna is the sleaziest kind of opportunistic careerist running this cycle-- regardless of party. Tuesday, Josh Richman at the San Jose Mercury News gave us a little peek into the millions of dollars Khanna has been raising from Republicans who want to oust Honda.

So far, challenger Ro Khanna has enormously outraised incumbent Rep. Mike Honda, D-San Jose. Khanna had a bit over $1.9 millon cash on hand with about $36,000 in outstanding debts as of Sept. 30, while Honda had about $560,000 banked with $4,700 in outstanding debts… [A] few donors to Khanna’s campaign seem to be Republicans taking an “anybody-but-Honda” stance.

Marc Leder-- the Florida hedge-fund executive who hosted the fundraiser at which Mitt Romney made his infamous “47 percent” comment, and who gave Romney and affiliated groups more than half a million dollars-- contributed $5,200 to Khanna’s campaign. Khanna isn’t the only Democrat to whom Leder has contributed… but his money skews heavily toward the GOP.

Khanna also received $2,500 from billionaire PayPal cofounder, hedge fund manager and venture capitalist Peter Thiel, a libertarian-leaning GOP funder who has given $2.6 million to the Endorse Liberty PAC and $2 million to Club for Growth Action in recent years.

And Khanna received $5,100 from Bay Area venture capitalist Chamath Palihapitiya, whose only other contribution in recent years was $5,000 to U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas. Palihapitiya made waves during October’s government shutdown by saying “stasis in the government is actually good for all of us. It means they can neither do anything semi-useful nor anything really stupid.”

Honda is one one the most solid progressives in Congress. It would be tragic to see him taken out by a bucket of slime like Khanna, backed by some of the worst predatory billionaires in America. If you'd like to help Honda win, you can do that here.

Who Is Financing The Right Wing Jihad Against Mike Honda-- And Why?

Two weeks from today will likely be the last time anyone ever hears about Ro Khanna, unless he gets arrested for criminal activities up the road. His campaign is one ultra-expensive failure financed by conservatives-- both Republican conservatives and Democratic conservatives, all eager to replace progressive icon Mike Honda with a sleazy conservative disguised as a Democrat. Alexander Kaufman wrote up a report of the interview Politico did with Warren Buffet, the second richest man in America (after Bill Gates), worth $67.3 billion. Buffet says he thinks wealthy people like himself, you the multibillionaires particularly, shouldn't be paying taxes at lower rates than their servants. Some of the richest people in America pay as little as 10% on their income taxes, far less than when the middle class was being built and people paid 90% on income over a million dollars.

Buffett said his own tax rate was “certainly not too high.” He has frequently pointed out that his tax rate is lower than that of his secretary. Debbie Bosanek, his secretary since 1993, has been a symbol for tax inequality since Buffett began touting the disparity in their tax rates as far back as 2007. During a 2012 interview with ABC News, Bosanek said she paid a tax rate of 35.8 percent, while Buffett paid 17.4 percent.

...Buffett urged the federal government to charge higher tax rates on income earned from some stock dividends and capital gains. Currently, such income is taxed at rates far lower than ordinary income. This helps widen income inequality and is an example of one way that wealth gained from assets such as stocks and property grows much faster than wages or the actual economy, as French economist Thomas Piketty argued in his bestseller Capital in the Twenty-First Century.

Up top is a new campaign ad from Mike Honda, one of the staunchest supporters of ordinary working families in the entire Congress. The ad contrasts Honda to Khanna, who is the quintessential handmaiden for the wealthy greed-hogs who don't want government services because they want lower taxes for themselves. Right wing billionaires, like extremist sociopaths John & Laura Arnold and Peter Thiel, as well as Romney's 47% dirt-bag Marc Leder, all of whom normally only give to Republicans, are maxing out to Khanna and giving hundreds of thousands of dollars to slimy SuperPACs running smear campaigns against Honda on Khanna's behalf.

Why do these greed-obsessed billionaires love Khanna so much? Simple: Khanna insists that the current corporate tax rate is too high, adamantly opposes increasing taxes on the one percent and wants to tax capital gains income as ordinary income as well as lowering repatriation of profits taxes from companies that have hidden their assets overseas to avoid taxes. Oh, yeah-- and he wants to cut Social Security benefits. He has vociferously attacked Honda for proposing to increase Social Security benefits-- a position Honda has led on and shares with every progressive in Congress-- and insisted it was "just a campaign tactic." Khanna:

"We need to have an honest conversation about Social Security and Medicare. Mike Honda has been campaigning on increasing, increasing Social Security benefits beyond what the current cost of living adjustments will allow. He knows that's impossible, he knows he's never going to get the votes for it. He knows the budget doesn't work, but it's just a campaign tactic. And the reality is, we need to start having an honest conversation."

Does that sound like a Democrat to you? Khanna has been running for office ever since he was caught stealing an election for student body president at the University of Chicago in 1966. He also once lied to California voters, claiming that Bill Clinton had endorsed him. Clinton, who had been neutral in the primary, immediately endorsed his opponent, Congressman Tom Lantos, who proceeded to wipe the floor with Khanna. Khanna tried insinuating that President Obama was backing him too-- but Obama endorsed Honda in no uncertain terms:

"Congressman Mike Honda is the right leader for the 17th district. Together, we’ve worked hard these last four years to bring meaningful, positive change to our nation, but there is much more to do. As we continue rebuilding our economy from the middle out, we know expanding educational opportunities is critical. Congressman Honda's lifelong commitment to education and fierce advocacy for innovation and technology is exactly what this nation needs as we continue to move America forward. We need Congressman Mike Honda in the United States Congress, and I urge you to vote to keep him there."

Khanna's a liar and a creep. Matt Cartwright (D-PA), the president of the congressional freshman class typifies the high regard in which his colleagues hold him:

Mike Honda is a great American, and one of our living icons in the Democratic ranks of the United States House of Representatives. In much the same way that Rep. John Lewis of Georgia is a living, breathing reminder of the civil rights struggles of the 1960s, Rep. Honda of California takes us back even further, to the 1940s of the Japanese-American internment camps. I often mention with pride that a Pennsylvanian, Justice Owen Roberts, dissented, in Korematsu v. United States, the Supreme Court decision that upheld the constitutionality of the Executive Order creating those internment camps. Mike Honda, born in 1941, spent his early childhood years in an internment camp in California.

…Nelson Mandela once said that “resentment is like drinking poison and then hoping it will kill your enemies.” Mike Honda could easily have turned to resentment or bitterness over the mind-boggling unfairness of his family’s wartime internment. Instead, he has devoted his life to the positive and uplifting work of making America a more just, more peaceful, and more progressive nation. I am deeply honored to be a fellow member of the House Democratic Caucus with Mike Honda, and even prouder to serve alongside him in the Congressional Progressive Caucus. I urge my fellow Democrats to support Representative Honda’s reelection in whatever way you can.

An Exchange Of Letters-- Ro Khanna And Rep. Mike Honda

Ro Khanna-- the Republican wing of the Democratic Party

Ro Khanna, an especially slimy icon of the Republican wing of the Democratic Party, has raised immense sums of money from wealthy people looking to replace a dedicated tribune of ordinary working families like Honda. A perfect example of the kinds of fake "Democrats" backing Khanna is sleazy Wall Street bank lobbyist Harold Ford. Like Khanna, Ford is eager to cut Social Security benefits for retired people using accounting tricks like Chained CPI. Khanna is also being backed by out-right Republicans, like Marc Leder, the Florida hedge fund crook who hosted the infamous 47% fundraiser for Mitt Romney that helped lose him the election.

The Khanna campaign said Tuesday it brought in $402,328 in the final quarter of 2013, bringing his total raised to $3.2 million. Khanna has nearly $2 million on hand for the June 3 primary in the 17th Congressional District, one of the most closely watched House races in the country.

Honda brought it around $250,000 this quarter and has $622,000 cash on hand. He is one of only two incumbents on the Blue America Worthy Incumbents page. Last week, DWT acquired a copy of a letter Khanna's campaign manger, Leah Cowan, sent to the Honda campaign:

Dear Congressman Honda,

I was encouraged to see your Tweet yesterday about your co-sponsorship of House Joint Resolution 25, to amend the Constitution and overturn Citizens United. We are in complete agreement on this important issue. Unlimited spending by outside special interest groups is polluting our politics.

Today, I invite you to join me in asking independent expenditure campaigns and super PACs, many of which rely on outside donors, to keep their money out of the 17th District race.

Let’s stand together with the other candidates in this race and take the same People’s Pledge Senator Elizabeth Warren and her opponent did to keep independent expenditures out of their race in 2012.

Senator Warren and Scott Brown agreed to pay a penalty of 50 percent the cost of any TV, radio, or Internet advertising by an outside group-- whether that ad supported the candidates themselves or aimed to attack their opponent. The money would be donated to a charity chosen by the other candidate. I believe we should embrace this landmark agreement and expand it to include direct mail expenditures as well. By saying no to all forms of advertising from outside groups, we are taking real stand against Citizens United.

Senator Warren said at the time that by taking the pledge, she and Brown “have now moved beyond talk to real action to stop advertising from third-party groups.”  She was right.  Their pledge effectively stopped SuperPAC expenditures from getting involved in their race.

I hope you will take this pledge with me-- and join me in asking any other candidates who may enter this race to do the same.

The response from Doug Greven, Honda's campaign manager left the Khanna money machine confused, panicked and reeling:

Hi Leah,

Thanks for sending this along.

In the true spirit of keeping undue influence out of this election, we propose limiting contributions to all candidates in this race to an amount that puts millionaires on a level playing field with ordinary folks: $570. This is the same limit as local elections in the city of Fremont, in our district.

We propose that all campaigns refund contributions to any donors who have already given more than this limit of $570. Your campaign can start by refunding the $11,000 in contributions from the five donors who have already requested a refund because Ro misled them. He had asked for their max-out contributions to run for an open seat, then used their money to run in a different district-- against Mike.

Then your campaign can continue by refunding contributions to Marc Leder (gave $5,200 to Ro) who hosted Mitt Romney for the fundraiser where he made his 47% remark, and Peter Thiel (gave $2,500 to Ro) who has given millions to the Club for Growth in order to elect far-right conservatives like Ted Cruz.

We look forward to your response.

The misled donors Greven referred to were tricked by Khanna into contributing under the guise of running in a neighboring district against another incumbent. (I recently asked Nick Ruiz in Florida, who asked for money from progressives by claiming to be running against conservative John Mica before revealing he had skipped to another district to run against Alan Grayson, to refund campaign contributions. Like Khanna, he hasn't refunded the money.) This is the letter the Khanna campaign got from 3 of the campaign donors who felt misled and want their money back:

Dear Ro,

In 2011, you asked us to contribute to your campaign to be Pete Stark’s successor when he retired. You are an energetic, smart person who shared our values, so we gave you $6,000 to support this goal.

But you are not using our money the way you promised. Instead, you’re using it to run against Congressman Mike Honda, a man who has spent his life increasing opportunities for people to better themselves, including you. We cannot support you in this and we don’t want our money to play any part in it either.

We request a refund of the $6,000 we gave you under the false pretense that you would use it to run in an open seat, which you clearly are not doing now. We did not give you the money to replace Congressman Mike Honda-- a well-respected, accomplished, former Japanese internment camp survivor, former science educator, Asian-American trailblazer and legislator.

Sincerely,


Sophia Yen

Steve Silberstein

Ted Fang

Cowan says they can forget about getting their money back, claiming it would be "impractical." A few weeks ago, Ruiz told me on the phone he would return the campaign donations I have him… but still hasn't. You can contribute to Honda's campaign here.


UPDATE: Only Right Wingers Give To Khanna

After a deranged Under Assistance Campaign Manager on Ro's fat payroll had a Twitter breakdown, a good friend of mine in Cincinnati sent me this note:

And re Peter Thiel, who they mention in their letter to him. If you write about this again, you might want to include this from Thiel's wikipedia… pretty powerful I think:

Thiel has contributed donations to Rep. James E. Rogan, Don Stenberg, Sen. John Thune Douglas Forrester, Rep. Robin Hayes, Sen. John Cornyn, Sen. Elizabeth Dole, Sen. Lamar Alexander, State Sen. Dick Monteith, Rep. Lee Terry, Sen. Chuck Hagel, Rep. Dan Lungren, Rep. Bob Beauprez, Rep. Mike Simpson, Rep. Tom Tancredo, Rep. Mary Bono, Gov. Butch Otter, Rep.Dana Rohrabacher, Rep. Nancy Johnson, Rep. Scott Garrett, Rep. Tim Johnson, Rep. Bill Thomas, Sen. Jeff Flake, Sen. Jim Demint, Sen. Jim Talent, Rep. Denny Rehberg, Rep. Rob Simmons, Rep. Jon Porter, Rep. Roscoe Bartlett, Rep. Ed Royce, Sen. Susan Collins, Sen. Gordon H. Smith, Rep. Bob Schaffer, John Neely Kennedy, Sen. Norm Coleman, Rep. Mike Coffman, Rep. Eric Cantor, John Raese, Dino Rossi, Ryan Brumberg, Sen. Rand Paul, Randy Altschuler, Rep. Justin Amash, State Sen. Richard Tisei, Kevin McCarthy, Sen. Ted Cruz, Josh Mandel, and Sen. Orrin Hatch.

The only Democrat Thiel has contributed donations to is Ro Khanna.