Devin Nunes cares more for Trump than his district. Vote for Phil Arballo for Congress

Two years ago, The Bee did not recommend Republican Devin Nunes for the 22nd District congressional seat. He had previously received the paper’s recommendation in every campaign since he was first elected in 2002.

What changed? Nunes himself. He became obsessed with defending President Donald Trump against the Mueller investigation, to the point of violating well-established protocol while running the powerful House Intelligence Committee.

Sadly, Nunes has continued to fail his district and has peddled wild conspiracy theories about how Democrats are out to get the president. He does so despite the fact that Congress is an independent branch of government. And he has not seriously considered whether any of the points Democrats have made in the impeachment process might be legitimate; not even once has he opened his mind to the possibility that Trump used the office of the president to conduct foreign affairs for his own personal gain.

The 22nd District deserves someone who fulfills the oversight role of Congress. And the district needs someone whose focus is supporting the people of Tulare and Fresno counties, not defending the person who occupies the White House.

Nunes, who would not even agree to participate in The Bee’s candidate interviews, has shown himself to be unworthy of this recommendation.

This year, The Bee recommends Phil Arballo, a Fresno Democrat whose life reflects the experiences of many in the Valley: Raised by a single mother, he graduated from Bullard High School, then became the first in his family to graduate from college, at Fresno State. Today, he is married with two young children and owns a financial services business. He’s Latino, with grandparents who immigrated from Mexico for better opportunities here. His ethnicity is relevant in a district where 46 percent of the residents are Latino.

Voters will cast ballots in the March 3 primary. Ballots are being mailed to registered voters on Feb. 3. The first day voters can turn in ballots is Feb. 4. Registration can occur through Feb. 17.

The top two finishers will move on to the November general election, regardless of party.

Why Arballo

Arballo’s background gives him a keen understanding of the challenges low-income families face in the 22nd District, one of the poorest in the nation. The median household income is under $50,000; California’s median household income is $71,228. He pledges to seek investments in job training to help workers gain skills.

Arballo also promises to support universal health care and push for insurance plans that are affordable and do not discriminate against pre-existing conditions. He also wants to work on lowering prescription drug prices. Such values are key in the 22nd District, which has more people relying on government-paid medical assistance than almost anywhere else in the nation. Fifty-two percent of Tulare County residents depend on Medi-Cal; 47 percent of those in Fresno County do so.

As a graduate of Fresno Unified schools, Arballo supports public education and wants to strengthen it from preschool through community college and vocational training.

Arballo backs the “dreamers,” those young people in America now under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. He wants the federal government to protect them from the threat of deportation by Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Arballo wants refugee families who are stopped at the border to be kept together.

Importantly, Arballo pledges to hold town hall meetings with constituents on a regular schedule. Nunes has not hosted a town hall in years.

Other candidates

Three other candidates are on the primary ballot:

▪ Bobby Bliatout, Democrat: A nonprofit health-care executive who lives in Fresno, Bliatout ran two years ago and finished third in the primary with 5 percent of the vote. The son of Hmong refugees, he also supports ensuring access to health care and lowering drug costs.

▪ Dary Rezvani, Democrat: Born and raised in Fresno, Rezvani graduated from Fresno State and took over his family’s auto repair business when his father died from cancer. He wants to support small businesses and their job creation.

▪ Eric Garcia, No Party Preference: A resident of Clovis, Garcia joined the Marines as an 18-year-old after 9/11 and served two tours in Iraq before receiving a medical discharge. He is earning a master’s in counseling. Chief among his goals is to heal the nation’s badly divided electorate.

Why not Nunes

Nunes did not respond to The Bee’s multiple invitations for an interview, just the same as two years ago. Per its policy, The Bee will not recommend anyone who refuses to be interviewed by the Editorial Board.

That is not the primary reason the board will not support him, however.

Rather, it is Nunes’ ongoing defense of President Trump to the detriment of the 22nd District. Nunes would rather appear on Fox News shows than ensure people in Tulare and Fresno counties have clean water, affordable health insurance, and job prospects.

During the House impeachment hearings by the Intelligence Committee, Nunes used his position as ranking minority member to denigrate the investigation as the “Ukraine hoax.” Fiona Hill, Trump’s former top adviser on Russia and Europe, corrected Nunes and other Republicans by saying it was Russia, not Ukraine, that had meddled in American presidential politics.

And, in fact, allegations have been made that Nunes met a Ukrainian prosecutor to launch an investigation into Hunter Biden, son of Democrat Joe Biden, a chief rival to Trump. A Trump request of the Ukrainian president to investigate the Bidens led to the impeachment inquiry.

Text messages released by House Democrats as part of the impeachment inquiry showed a key Nunes aide met dozens of times with an associate of Rudy Giuliani, Trump’s attorney, to dig up dirt on Biden.

It is inconceivable Nunes did not know about those meetings. So his “hoax” claims are shown to be patently false. His initial comments that he did not know Lev Parnas, the Giuliani associate? Those were lies. His attempts to undermine the Democratic impeachment hearings focused on an anti-Biden effort? Shameful and anti-American at their core.

Recommendation

Nunes has proven time and again that supporting the president is his priority, so it is mystifying that he doesn’t just go to work for the Trump team. Keeping Nunes in the House is probably more useful to the overall Republican strategy. His constituents are the collateral damage in that equation.

If the voters in the 22nd District want a representative who will focus on good governance for them, versus winning political battles, then The Bee recommends voters support Phil Arballo.