Jimmy Gomez

Governors are setting the dates for special congressional elections to replace congressmen who have been drafted for other jobs. Most of them are to replace Members who are joining Team Trump but the first contest-- April 4-- is in L.A., where one of the deepest blue districts in the whole country (Trump only got 10.7% of the vote there) will select a replacement for Xavier Becerra, who was tapped by Gov.

The Washington Post recently defined fake news as "deliberately constructed lies, in the form of news articles, meant to mislead the public." Last month California Assemblyman Jimmy Gomez-- currently running for the open L.A.

Sunday the California Democratic Party Endorsement Caucus met in El Sereno to determine whether or not to endorse one of the dozen or so candidates running to replace Xavier Becerra in the Los Angeles district that includes Highland Park, Eagle Rock, Mount Washington, City Terrace, Boyle Heights, Glassell Park, Downtown L.A. (including the Arts District), Chinatown, Koreatown, Little Tokyo, Little Bangladesh, Westlake, etc.

Late yesterday-- just as 4 Senate Democrats were voting with the Republicans to shut down the filibuster that could have stopped Tillerson's confirmation-- Ted Lieu offered a theme for the resistance: "We should not give him a chance to govern. I believe he is a danger to the Republic." Trump's neo-Nazi supporters are going bonkers over Ted's ability to rally opposition against their Führer.

Jimmy GomezCalifornia elected 5 new freshmen this year— all Democrats replacing Democrats: Ro Khanna, who won a primary against Mike Honda, Jimmy Panetta, who took the seat Sam Farr retired from, Salud Carbajal, who took the seat Lois Capps retired from, Nanette Barragan, who took the seat Janice Hahn retired from and Lou Correa, who took the seat Loretta Sanchez gave top when she ran, unsuccessfully, for the Senate.

Jimmy GomezCalifornia elected 5 new freshmen this year— all Democrats replacing Democrats: Ro Khanna, who won a primary against Mike Honda, Jimmy Panetta, who took the seat Sam Farr retired from, Salud Carbajal, who took the seat Lois Capps retired from, Nanette Barragan, who took the seat Janice Hahn retired from and Lou Correa, who took the seat Loretta Sanchez gave top when she ran, unsuccessfully, for the Senate.

Dahlia Lithwick's OpEd in yesterday's NY Times Buck Up, Democrats, and Fight Like Republicans bemoans the absence of "top Democrats" in the earliest skirmishes with Trump and his illegitimate presidency.

Jimmy Gomez is a young guy from my neighborhood. When Xavier Becerra was appointed by Jerry Brown to become California Attorney General-- filling the vacancy created by Kamala Harris' election to the Senate last month-- my first thought was to wonder if Jimmy could be persuaded to run for the congressional seat. It's a deep blue seat and there's no Republican who could ever compete there. Obama got 83% of the vote in 2012. So it is going to be a campaign about who who would be the best Democratic candidate, the one with the best proven vision for the job.

Assemblyman Jimmy GomezYesterday, Assemblyman Jimmy Gomez, who represents a huge swath of hipster and Hispanic Los Angeles (Silverlake, Echo Park, Boyle Heights, Eagle Rock, Highland Park, Montecito Heights, Cypress Park, Chinatown, East L.A.) yielded to an animated draft movement by progressives in his district to run for the congressional seat Xavier Becerra is giving up to become California Attorney General.

CA-34-- Perez and GomezXavier Becerra was first elected to Congress in 1992 and, until yesterday he was the 4th-ranking Democrat in the House leadership. He's a generally liberalish guy, charismatic, polished, more often on the side of the angels than the rest of the House leadership.