CA-22

California’s 22nd congressional district is one of the dwindling 7 still left in Republican hands-- and likely one of the next to fall. The relatively compact Central Valley district, starts up in the northern and eastern parts of the city of Fresno, includes Clovis, Reedley, Dinuba, Visalia, Exeter, Lindsay and Tulare. The district is primarily rural and includes parts of two counties, Fresno and Tulare.

Devin Nunes has been one of Trump's most consistent defenders, co-conspirators and enablers in Congress. As Mark Sumner pointed out yesterday at Daily Kos, Nunes has been pretending to be an investigator, when he was part of the criminal syndicate all along.

In 2018, the DCCC timidly and reluctantly got behind a tepid centrist, Andrew Janz, in the Central Valley race to unseat Trump enabler Devin Nunes. On the first day after his announcement, I spoke to Janz and he volunteered that the two issues that were motivating him to run were the death penalty-- he said it needs to be used more frequently-- and the Second Amendment-- he said it needed to be protected.

For some reason I could never understand, no one on Twitter ever pointed out that Devin Nunes is a hermaphrodite. OK let that go by. But we really do need to ask ourselves if Nunes is a shameless partisan hack-- someone who abuses power and the legal process to injure his political opponents, who plays fast and loose with the truth to advance partisan goals, and who’s prone to conspiratorial thinking on the flimsiest of grounds. That either is or isn't the case.

Yesterday, Fox News broke the story that reviled Central Valley Republican, Devin Nunes, a Trump/Putin appendage is suing... suing... suing. The doesn't like being mocked and he's probably one of the most-mocked members of Congress-- after Gym Jordan.

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.

Towards the end of August there was a stir in the Central Valley when a judge ruled that two GOP congressmen, Jeff Denham and Devin Nunes could call themselves "farmer" on the ballot.

Goodball by Chip ProserDevin Nunes is certainly one of the worst of TrumpWorld's arch-villains. He's up for reelection in 2 months in California. But not in coastal California. He has a pretty safe Republican seat in the Central Valley. Obama lost the district both times he ran, with around 42% of the vote. Hillary lost to Trump two years ago with around 42% of the vote. The PVI is R+8... not impossible in a wave year, but a very steep climb.

Andrew Janz hasn't exactly been one of my favorite candidates this cycle. I spoke with him early in the cycle and he admitted to me that he's really conservative. Some DC consultants have since polished him up a bit and taught him how to talk to Democrats-- and not to talk to people like me.

Un-American Activities In The House by Chip ProserFormer Texas Senator, Kay Bailey Hutchison (R), was appointed U.S. ambassador to NATO by Señor Trumpanzee. Yesterday she was a guest, from Brussels, on both Face the Nation and on Fox News Sunday. On the latter, she told Dana Perino that she thinks "Russia is trying to flip Turkey. They're trying to flip many of our allies.