Thanks to California’s top-two open-primary elections, Democratic Congressman Mike Honda (CA-17) is well into a three-year challenge from supposed Democrat, Ro Khanna. Continuous for two elections now, Rep. Honda has endured vicious attacks from the Khanna camp, bolstered by a couple columnists in the local media. Often the attacks are ageist, once even calling Rep. Honda an “old-school liberal” for wanting to repeal George W. Bush’s tax cut for the rich.
Ro Khanna has welcomed the support of homophobes, racists and even an actual Trump delegate, Peter Thiel who once blamed the downfall of capitalist democracy on women. So maybe it shouldn’t be surprising to see Ro posting racially-stereotyping comments on his Facebook page.
Who said it? Trump or Ro
When a constituent recently noted that she saw many posts with local Asian-American groups but no Latino or Hispanic groups, his reply was, “I have strong support from the Latino community and proud of it. Have been endorsed by the Laborers […].”
Well, this will be news to the diverse members of the Laborers’ International Union of North America that I see on the jobsites everyday. Not just the Laborers’ union but local construction sites in general are as diverse as District 17, a majority-minority district. It is likely because of such statements and his associations that the local unions who better know the candidates have endorsed Rep. Honda, while Ro’s endorsement comes from the Pacific Southwest Regional Laborers.
Rep. Mike Honda has received the endorsement of the Silicon Valley Latino Democratic Forum, as well as the Silicon Valley Asian Pacific American Dem Club, the California Democratic Party, the California Teachers Association (note to Ro: this is not a women’s group), Democratic Activists For Women Now (but this one is) and many more.
If you check to see who is funding the candidates you will find donations by industry are from individuals (2/3) who work in the Human Rights industry or (1/3) Human Rights Political Action Committees (PAC) are #5 in Rep. Honda’s career donors list. On the other hand last election Ro Khanna was the #1 Democrat with Wall Street donors, this election he is #1 of the hundreds of candidates running for congress from any Party.
Ro Khanna constantly touts his no PAC pledge, and even if we ignore the Super PAC created for him last election, the pledge falls flat when you learn he bundles money using software created by his campaign chair, Steve Spinner. Using an automated version of a method Karl Rove devised to get around the campaign finance reforms of 2002, the bundled money even includes a couple of Karl Rove’s original Bush Rangers. Yet Ro Khanna claims to be a champion for campaign finance reform?
Many of Ro Khanna’s Wall Street-type donors are hedge fund and venture capitalist billionaires that are part of a very well funded pro-charter movement sweeping the state and country. For them it is a publicly funded, recession proof investment and they seem very confident Ro Khanna supports their agenda. And why wouldn’t they when he uses language like “Universal pre-K,” an idea promoted by pro-charter billionaires after they fought to defeat California’s public pre-K initiative.
No wonder Civil Rights leaders, Rep John Lewis and former President of the NAACP Ben Jealous, recently endorsed Rep. Honda. Mike Honda has always been a courageous Civil Rights leader; as County Supervisor in the 90’s he was the first to advocate for same-sex partner benefits, stood up for Muslims after 9-11, and was against the Iraq war. It was Honda’s courage and innate understanding of these issues that earned yesterday’s endorsement from George Takei.
”Glad to be spending the evening with my good friend George Takei, he and I share a strong commitment to social justice and equal rights for all. Honored to have his endorsement and support!” ~ Rep. Honda
Since his first day in office, Mike has been a passionate and outspoken ally for the LGBTQ community, fighting for the rights of our community long before the Democratic Party as a whole would take up our cause. To this day, he continues to be a voice for the voiceless - standing up to divisive and hateful rhetoric.
A progressive champion, Mike has never backed down from a worthy fight, or buckled in the face of adversity. It’s why I support his return to Congress this November.
But now Mike is facing the fight of his career, fending off attacks from a well-funded opponent fueled by maxed-out contributions from far-right conservatives.
The bill seeks to refine data already collected by the State to match the standards used by the Federal Census Bureau to better understand the health and educational needs of California’s large and diverse Asian-American citizens. The bill is moving ahead but an amendment was added stripping out refinement of the education data.
Again a policy not publicly shared with his supporters, I exposed Ro Khanna’s endorsement of the conservative and extremist opponents of AB1726. The small but vocal group of mostly Chinese-Americans declared the bill “racist” and stoked fears it would bring on another Holocaust, even comparing proponents to the Nazis.
Ro awkwardly covering the word “Racist” on anti-AB1726 sign during a Silicon Valley Chinese Association event.
Proponents pushed back and wondered if this wasn’t based on unfounded fears, selfishness or racism. Some Asian communities struggle more than others, and maybe the opponents felt they were better off, so much so that if the data was disaggregated it would hurt their children’s chances to get into Ivy League universities. This was seemingly confirmed when the education section was removed and opposition died down.
Apparently Nazis can be trusted with your health data, just not your education data.
