CA-25

Simi Valley makes up almost a third of Buck McKeon's congressional district (CA-25) but it was added to the district in the last cycle and McKeon-- the former mayor of Santa Clarita who has long since become a creature of Washington-- virtually never bothers going there. Preparing for a possible reelection challenge-- he's told the media he's running again and confided to local Republican politicians he's going to retire-- he ventured in Republican-friendly Simi Valley this week.

Not all that many of his own constituents have noticed, but last week the BBC called out a congressman from Santa Clarita: A lawmaker helped create the drone industry-- and has reaped the benefits. Don't expect any exposés like this in the Signal, or even the L.A. Times, but Buck McKeon's cushy-- and extremely corrupt-- deal with the drone industry has been raising eyebrows all over the world.

Do you ever go to congressional town halls? I actually do. 3 summers ago I reported on one I went to in Alhambra, which turned into one of the first of the crazy Tea Party anti-healthcare set-ups. It was Adam Schiff's town hall and the local crackpot right was determined to disrupt it.

Political scuttlebutt in Santa Clarita is that Buck McKeon is busy sucking up all the benefits of political corruption available and setting himself up as an armaments lobbyist this session and that he won't run against Lee Rogers again in 2014. Rogers came closer to beating him last year than anyone else in McKeon's whole career. And that was without any help from the DCCC.

As part of a big radio buy [listen right above by clicking on that gizmo] aimed at a dozen right-wing anti-immigrant extremists, the SEIU is targeting 4 GOP crackpots in California: Jeff Denham, Gary Miller, David Valadao and Buck McKeon. The ad asks each of these galoots to support the comprehensive immigration bill that the Senate already passed by a wide bipartisan margin.

A few days ago we mentioned the 26 districts in Republican hands that have at least 25% Hispanic populations. The district with the 9th biggest Hispanic population is CA-25, Buck McKeon's district. Last year Democrat Lee Rogers won the heavily Hispanic third of the district in the Antelope Valley.

After the closest call with political mortality of his life in 2012, Santa Clarita Republican Buck McKeon has told political allies that he won't run in 2014 if Lee Rogers challenges him again. Today he's getting the bad news: Rogers-- this time with the solid backing of the DCCC-- is running for the CA-25 seat. McKeon has promised the seat to Tony Strickland but Santa Clarita Mayor Bob Kellar, state Sen.