The Elizabeth Warren of the WestTuesday will see 4 crucial open primaries in Orange County. Blue America has endorsed in 3 but can't find a candidate good enough to make an endorsement in one (CA-48). In CA-48, the coastal district that starts up in Seal Beach and heads south through Huntington Beach, Fountain Valley, Costa Mesa and Newport Beach to Laguna Beach, Aliso Viejo, Laguna Niguel and Three Arch Bay. It's the district occupied by one of Putin's 2 favorite congressmen, Dana Rohrabacher (the other being Devin Nunes) and Rohrabacher is just so bad that it may be necessarily to just vote for the least evil of some pretty bad Democrats. One, Omar Siddiqui is a truly dreadful carpet-bagger and "ex"-Republican multimillionaire campaigning by calling himself, proudly, "a Reagan Democrat." Probably the least bad of the candidates is another "ex"-Republican, Harley Rouda, who I sense is probably not as bad as Hans Keirstead. The DCCC recruited both and the New Dems endorsed both but in the end the DCCC decided to go with Rouda, primarily because he was willing to write himself a bigger check. I've talked with him at length and I'd take the bet that he probably has the best chance to beat Rohrabacher and is probably the most likely to vote less conservatively in Congress.But the race I wanted to remind everyone about today is the one east of Rohrabacher's-- CA-45, occupied by another rich carpetterbagger, Trump runner stamp Mimi Walters. The district heads east and south from the Anaheim Hills, Villa Park, Tustin and Irvine to Lake Forest, and Laguna Woods down to Rancho Santa Margarita, Mission Viejo and Coto De Caza. This is the one district where there is no danger of the jungle primary giving us 2 Republicans in November. It will be Mimi Walters and either a progressive UC Irvine professor, Katie Porter or a sleazy UC Irvine professor, New Dem Dave Min. Min is one of the worst of the California candidates running this cycle, as bad as it gets. Porter, on the other hand, is as good as it get. She's worked with Elizabeth Warren. He worked for Chuck Schumer... helping Schumer gather Wall Street bribes-- completely disgusting and unfit for office. I want to let Elizabeth Warren speak to why she's so enthusiastic about Katie:
My good friend, Katie Porter, is running to unseat a Republican member of Congress in California who calls Katie “The Elizabeth Warren of the West” and "Warren 2.0."This Republican also warns supporters that Katie Porter will be a "solid vote" for progressive ideas and her election "will mean the end of the conservative policies" advanced by a Republican majority and Donald Trump.That sounds pretty good to me! (And to Katie!)Our best shot at flipping this very-flippable seat and advancing progressive ideas like Medicare For All and corporate accountability next Congress is for Katie Porter to win this key primary on Tuesday, June 5....If you haven’t already heard, Katie was my student. After she graduated, we worked together for years studying why millions of working American families were going broke. Like me, Katie became a bankruptcy law professor, and now she teaches at UC Irvine.After the 2008 economic crisis, Kamala Harris (then California Attorney General) appointed Katie to a job as California's top consumer watchdog-- fighting to hold the big banks accountable and help families who lost their homes. She took on Wall Street and helped tens of thousands of cheated families get some relief.Katie is THE fighter we need in Congress-- and she's got a real shot at winning this thing.California's 45th congressional district went against Trump in 2016 by five points. The Republican who holds this seat has voted with Donald Trump 98.6% of the time-- including votes to repeal health care for millions of Americans, defund Planned Parenthood, and gut the rules on Wall Street.We can count on Katie to fight for Medicare for All, women's reproductive rights, and strong corporate accountability. Republican politicians know Katie will stand up to powerful interests.Katie's been a great partner for years-- and I'm happy to have the opportunity to continue working with her in Congress to fight for America's families. Let's show Katie that we have her back.
And as long as we're talking about Tuesday's Orange County primaries, let me remind you that there are two excellent candidates in the two other districts as well-- Doug Applegate in CA-49 and Sam Jammal in CA-39. Doug, Sam and Katie would be a formidable team for strong progressive ideas and values in Orange County. If you have any family or friends in the county, please remind them... Tuesday is the day. THIS Tuesday.
