CommentsEASTSIDER-Last week, in the run up to the June 6 Special Election runoff for Congressional District 34, replacing Xavier Becerra, we saw what may be the only pre-election public forum for choosing between favorite Jimmy Gomez and challenger Robert Lee Ahn.
The East Area Progressives Meeting
The meeting to discuss candidate endorsement held by the East Area Progressives proved a disappointment to me because neither of the two candidates was present. The presentations were done by surrogates -- not that the surrogates did a bad job.
The club’s 1st V.P., Renee Nahum, represented the Jimmy Gomez camp, while Peter Choi again stood in for Robert Lee Ahn. Renee characterized Jimmy as “one of us,” a real progressive, and touted all of his legislative achievements in Sacramento. She also dinged Ahn for “treating his workers badly” in a company he owned, and talked up an inappropriate mailer the candidate sent out. Choi admitted that the mailer was a “poor decision,” but pushed back on the worker issue -- Ahn bought a company that had defaulted on their employees.
For his part, Choi keyed in on Gomez’ “yes” stance on single payer health care, and his backing of Eric Bauman to lead the California Democratic Party. He also touted Ahn as being a true “‘born in the district” candidate who has the best grasp of us. And, of course, he called out Gomez for the tons of cash he has taken from special interests, like the fracking industry and for-profit private prison industry shills. He characterized Ahn as an “Elizabeth Warren” kind of Republican turned Democrat.
At the end of the evening, with some folks having left, the club’s vote was 47 in favor of Gomez, 11 in favor of Ahn, and 7 No Endorsement. Thus the EAPD officially has endorsed Jimmy Gomez in the runoff.
The Occidental College Forum
This one was the real deal. The forum itself was co-hosted by the Alliance for a Better Community and NAELO Education Fund (the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials.) Deftly moderated by Channel 4’s Conan Nolan and Telemundo Channel 52’s Dunia Elvir, the event proceeded on a much more smoothly than most of the CD 1 debates. Their professionalism showed, and the fact that this event was held at Occidental College in Northeast LA probably helped as well. I counted thirteen questions posed by the moderators, plus opening and closing statements by the candidates. And the questions themselves were more pointed than in most forums I have attended this election cycle. With apologies for any errors (I was writing fast) here is the substance of the questions:
(1) What do you think of Donald Trump?
(2) There have been arrests of 41,000 Immigrants within first 100 days of Trump. How will you uphold our values?
(3) If The Donald calls with a $1 trillion infrastructure pot of money, asking what you want, do you take the call?
(4) Jobs are critical to this district. What are you going to do promote jobs and the skills needed for those jobs?
(5) You will be a minority member of Congress, so what policy have you worked on across party lines to actually get implemented?
(6) What will you do to expand access and education for the less advantaged?
(7) Bernie won this District. There’s a suspicion about corporate Democrats. What’s your take?.
(8) How would you help provide health and medical care in a diverse district?
(9) Bernie likes Single Payer healthcare. How about you?
(10) Education is critical for our district. How will you make sure higher education stays affordable?
(11) When you are elected to Congress, give us three committees you would like to be on?
(12) New construction and gentrification are providing rapidly increasing stress and dislocation in CD 34. What will you do about it?
(13) Is there any area that government should stay out of?
In the interests of brevity, I won’t go into each question. Instead here are some points that I found of interest: First, regarding jobs and skills needed within the District, the two candidates took a different stance. Jimmy Gomez is all in for tax credits for the entertainment industry, and training for the tech/biotech “jobs of the future.” Robert Lee Ahn pointed out that small business is the economic backbone of the district, and they need all the help they can get to grow and expand.
On the issue of who’s a corporate Democrat, of course, the knives came out. Jimmy pointed to all his “progressive” endorsements. Ahn pointed out that “progressive” is a way of thinking and acting, not a label for sale. Apropos of that, he asked why Gomez supported our brand new gas tax, which is totally regressive and will have a direct negative impact on folks in CD 34. (Note: the new fees will be 12 cents/gallon, plus a “transportation improvement fee” based on vehicle value.)
Another difference emerged on single-payer health care. Gomez tried to finesse his support of California’s SB 562 over this issue by characterizing the bill as contingent on being able to pay for it -- not exactly how I’ve heard it described in other venues. Opponents say it will break the budget. Ahn was nuanced, saying that right now keeping the Affordable Care Act intact is the play, with a long term goal of single payer healthcare.
I found another revealing moment in the question what Congressional committees on which the candidates would like to serve. Gomez had no hesitation -- Health & Human Services, Natural Resources, and Oversight. It was almost as though he has been talking to someone in D.C. about this very topic. Ahn’s answer seemed on-point without the insider aspect of Gomez’ answer. He would like to use his stature as a Korean-American on the Foreign Affairs Committee, which makes eminent sense. I believe he would be the first Korean-American in Congress.
For the rest, you could fairly characterize Jimmy Gomez as the knowledgeable insider and Ahn as the local guy who knows the district “block by block,” relying on small donations while Gomez has the big bucks endorsers and their money/support.
For those who want to view the entire debate and make up their own mind, here’s the link.
The Takeaway
For all of the happy faces, you can see the heavy hand of the Democratic establishment all over this race. Just look at the daisy-chain of publicly paid for special elections that are being visited on us as a result of Xavier Becerra’s moving from Washington D.C. to Sacramento as our Attorney General. Becerra goes to California, Jimmy Gomez goes to Washington D.C., some Democratic Party carpetbagger replaces Jimmy Gomez in Assembly District 51, and next, Maria Elena Durazo replaces Kevin de Leon in the California Senate since he’s termed out and his successor, Gomez, is off to Washington.
Of course, should Jimmy Gomez lose the race, then there are no more special elections, which one could characterize as bad for Jimmy but good for election-weary taxpayers.
For all the debate talk, I have difficulty seeing Jimmy Gomez as small donor, ground up, challenger to the establishment Dems, given Gomez’ laundry list of endorsers. However he is a polished and articulate politician. And I am not endorsing either candidate, since I could make a case for either of these two contenders being better House members than a majority of who’s there now. Notice, even the media is split; the LA Times endorsed Jimmy Gomez and the Daily News endorsed Robert Lee Ahn. Here’s the article.
At the same time, I always have a soft spot for the local, fresh blood candidate when it comes to my Democratic Party’s contests. It is the breeding ground for the next generation of Democrats, and they better actually stand for something if they want to take back the House and the Senate. “Just Say No” to Trump is not a platform.
This election is all about turnout, and if the Occidental Campus event was any indication, it is clear that the young and the enthusiastic are fueling Ahn’s campaign. At the same time, I should note that both the NEDC (Northeast Dems) and the EAPD (East Area Progressives) have endorsed Jimmy Gomez. That means that there is already a total ramping up of mailers and phone banking for Gomez.
So my guess is, with a big voter turnout Gomez wins; a low turnout means Ahn could win. Now let’s see how good my crystal ball is on June 6.
This is a critical race for California Dems. If you’re a voter in the district, please, please, VOTE!
(Tony Butka is an Eastside community activist, who has served on a neighborhood council, has a background in government and is a contributor to CityWatch.) Edited for CityWatch by Linda Abrams.
-cw
