CA-16

California is a blue state but the Republican wing of the Democratic Party is very strong in the state. There are 46 California Democrats serving in the House. Believe me, they're not all like Barbara Lee, Ted Lieu, Ro Khanna or Judy Chu.

It's crucially important to get to know who a candidate is in order to be able to predict what kind of a member of Congress they are likely to be-- not just how they will vote-- but also how they will lead, how competent and effective they will be, etc. Recently, we asked incisive author, labor activist, author and former congressional candidate Jonathan Tasini to spend some time with Central Valley progressive Kim Williams. The resulting interview on the Working Life Podcast (above) offers one of the best opportunities to get to know Williams.

If you watched the Democratic presidential debate on ABC last week, you probably saw the disgusting 30 second ad above. It was run by Elizabeth Heng, a 2018 Republican congressional candidate in California's Central Valley. The ABC-TV affiliate in Fresno explained the controversy for anyone who missed the debate or ad. ABC30 reporter Nathalie Granda:

Whenever there's any kind of legislation put forward to help working families, you can always count on two things-- Republicans will vote NO and a certain number of reactionaries from the Republican wing of the Democratic Party will join them. In the forefront of that group of reactionaries is always Central Valley Blue Dog Jim Costa.

Sometimes people ask me who the single worst Democrat in Congress is. Until very recently, I had never even thought it was Pelosi. Last session it was unquestionably Kyrsten Sinema, the genuinely mentally unbalanced Blue Dog from Arizona, who is currently the single worst Democrat in the Senate.

That tweet up top with a picture of the truck was sent by Rory Appleton, a political reporter for the Fresno Bee, the most read newspaper in both Nunes' and Costa's districts, respectively CA-22 and CA-16. Both members are extremely conservative, though Nunes is a Republican and Costa is a Blue Dog Democrat.

Sit in at his office didn't prevent Costa from voting with the GOP for TPPI'm not being coy-- you know me better than that-- and I wish I could remember her name, but I can't even remember for sure if I heard her on the radio while I was driving or on TV in the next room while I was working. She truly exemplifies everything wrong with unlicensed political punditry.

Route 99, the Golden State Highway, splits off from the 5 Freeway just south of Bakersfield in southern California and stretches north to include a straight path through the Central Valley-- including all of CA-16 and all of CA-10, way into the north where it merges with the 5 again at Red Bluff.