Marek Warszawski
Most expensive House race in California is in the Valley, as our mailboxes show
Any day now — and that day can’t arrive soon enough — it’ll be safe to check the mail and watch TV again.
You’ll be able to open your mailbox without having to wade past political mailers. Sitting through commercials during football games and the local news won’t involve a bombardment of accusations, most of them between congressional candidates who aren’t on your ballot.
Let’s all join lungs for a collective sigh of nonpartisan relief.
Of all 53 California congressional races, none can top our very own 22nd District when it comes to total money raised ($28,012,948 at last count). Nearly 85% of that is the amount raised ($23,622,011) and spent ($17,769,697) by Republican Rep. Devin Nunes.
Phil Arballo, Nunes’ Democratic opponent, has burned through nearly all of his $4,390,937. That may sound like a paltry total compared with Nunes’ war chest. It’s actually $2 million more than what the average House member raised during the 2020 campaign, according to the OpenSecrets database.
In other words, running against Nunes is an expensive, uphill race.
Nunes doesn’t grant me access to his books, and the amount isn’t made clear on financial documents. But it would be interesting to know how much the nine-term congressman spends on mailers. Constituents (even those registered as Democrats and No Party Preference) have received a steady stream for months, sometimes two on the same day.
While President Trump and his postmaster general ally Louis DeJoy work to sow distrust in the US Postal Service by snarling deliveries near the election, Nunes is propping up the venerable institution all by himself. Between all the mailers, the jigsaw puzzle, the beer koozie and that 90-page book of paranoid ramblings, local post offices probably had to hire extra sorters.
How much does the congressman pay in postage? Looking through Nunes’ recent campaign filings, I found $25,971.45 worth of expenses for Visalia’s postmaster general.
Does $25,971.45 cover the entire district? Or is that per mailbox?
Trying to scare about socialism
Nunes’ mailers (as well as his TV spots) have two primary aims: First, he wants to brand Arballo as a dangerous socialist and part of a larger socialist takeover. Second, he wants to portray himself as a trusted health care leader during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Both have holes large enough to drive through them with a semi truck.
I’m not going to refute every Nunes mistruth. That alone would soak up the rest of today’s word allotment. Instead, let’s deflate his socialism scare tactics with one pin prick:
If the Democrats truly had a socialist agenda (as Nunes has spent millions of his donors’ dollars trying to get everyone to believe), they wouldn’t have nominated Joe Biden.
Remember Bernie Sanders, the guy who wants single-payer national health care, debt-free college tuition and the Green New Deal? He bowed out of the race in April.
Biden is as middle of the road as it gets. The Democratic nominee has a five-decade political track record of not being a socialist.
Nunes’ flimsy cred on health care
Time to discuss Nunes anointing himself as a health care leader during coronavirus — ignoring that he encouraged people to “go to your local pub” hours before the state closed all bars and restaurants.
These types of mailers (usually four pages) let us know in large typeface that Nunes is the American Ambulance Association’s Legislator of the Year.
What they don’t tell is Nunes received that award in 2016, two election cycles ago.
Not to belittle legislation Nunes helped push through that bolstered emergency medical services for rural residents, but does that really make him a health care leader?
Nunes may have a doctor or nurse vouch for him, but there are no testimonials from medical groups. And, no, misleading letters crafted by wealthy donors who happen to serve on the Valley Children’s Healthcare Board of Trustees don’t count.
It’s all a thinly veiled sham for a congressman who, following Trump’s lead, wants to bring down the Affordable Care Act without offering up any plan to replace it.
Nunes is outspending Arballo 4-to-1, so the battle of the mailboxes and airwaves in the 22nd District is one-sided.
Cox, Valadao trade shots on TV
That isn’t the case in the 21st District, where Democratic Congressman TJ Cox and his Republican predecessor David Valadao trade haymakers like boxers Marvin Hagler and Tommy Hearns. Except instead of three rounds, this bout has lasted 14 months.
Since the 21st is one of California’s few swing districts (Cox won by 862 votes in 2018), it is prime territory for outside influence. Outside Democratic and GOP groups have spent almost $13.4 million.
In the central San Joaquin Valley, $13.4 million buys a whole lot of commercials. Which explains why you can barely flip on your set without seeing Republicans take shots at Cox or Democrats pummel Valadao.
The 21st is a massive district in terms of geography, stretching from Fresno County just south of the Fresno city limits all the way to southeast Bakersfield. However, fewer than 20% of residents in the Fresno-Visalia TV market actually live there, according to my own calculations.
What does that mean for the other 80%, citizens of Fresno, Clovis, Visalia and Merced subjected to the same Cox-Valadao onslaught even though they can vote for neither of them?
It means we can’t wait for election season to be over.
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