Janz website, healthcare, as a litmus test:
Important Issues to CA-22
Healthcare
The Affordable Care Act 2019 expanded health insurance to 24 million Americans who didn’t have it before. However, there are flaws in the design. We should keep what works and fix what doesn’t. Unfortunately, the current proposals in Congress would strip millions of their access to healthcare by gutting Medicaid, scrapping the pre-existing conditions mandate and instituting an Age Tax that would make seniors pay more. This is the wrong approach. We must work together to ensure that, regardless of income level, every American is covered. Americans should not be going broke because a family member or they themselves get sick. Healthcare is a right, not a privilege. I also believe Congress must keep its promise to seniors and strengthen Medicare, not cut it. Medicare is not the government's money; it is your money. You earned it.
Aside from "Healthcare is a right, not a privilege," neither "Medicare for All" nor "Single Payer" are mentioned.
Ricardo Franco website, healthcare, as a litmus test:
Medicare for All: I fully support Medicare for All and pledge to cosponsor it if elected to Congress. I believe that healthcare is a human right, and will ensure that we maintain access to emergency, preventative, and reproductive healthcare.
On that last item, "reproductive healthcare," Janz' position:
Women's Health
I strongly support every woman’s right to choose and will stand up to any efforts to criminalize abortion. Reproductive health care decisions should be between a woman and her doctor, not Washington politicians.
Money raised and spent by candidates for the 2018 election cycle, as of yesterday, reported by OpenSecrets:
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Franco is a focus. This is because Digby wrote; see: Blue America blogging, which after cataloging Nunes' hijinks, (memo mentioned) endorses Franco now, well prior to the June 5 "top-two" California CA 22 primary - quoting at length:
One would think that a smart Republican would keep a bit of a low profile in a state which only gave Trump 31.6 percent of the vote in 2016, the lowest percentage of any Republican nominee to ever run for president. Not Nunes. Despite the fact that Trump remains mired in scandal and embarrassingly low approval ratings, he has taken the role of Trump defender to such an extreme that his face is now the international symbol for Trumpian sycophancy.
Nunes felt the Trump magic early, traveling around the state with him on Trump Force One during the campaign and becoming an influential foreign policy member of the Trump transition. As the Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee he immediately took it upon himself to run interference for the White House by trying to help Trump make the case for his inane conspiracy theory that the Obama administration had tapped Trump Tower.
He made a fool of himself, pretending that in conducting his oversight duties he had "discovered" proof and had to rush to the White House to inform the president --- only to be revealed to have conspired with Trump staffers in the middle of the night to produce this information. This supposedly led to him recusing himself from the Russia investigation although his continued involvement shows he understands that in the Trump era, rules, traditions, norms and laws are all optional for Republicans.
Needless to say, the recent drama with what's known as "The Nunes Memo" and his announced intention to write many more in which he promises to name names in the Department of Justice, the FBI and the State Department and complete the "purge" of all government employees suspected of being insufficiently loyal to Trump, means he's going to be very busy in Washington over the next few months.
He should be paying a little more attention to what's happening in his district.
Nunes won comfortably in 2016 but that was before he voted for a tax bill designed to wreak revenge on California residents. It was before the Republicans decided to go to war against immigrants and start deporting people who've been living in the state for years. It was before Trump made fun of climate change and ignored the epic fire season that burned thousands of homes in California.It was before Nunes' Dear Leader decided to open oil drilling off California's coast, even as he exempted Florida a state which narrowly voted for him.
Nunes thinks his district is safe for him but everything indicates that 2018 will be a big blue wave referendum on Donald Trump. Being known as what the Fresno Bee recently called "Trump's Stooge" may just motivate a few more Democrats than usual to come out and vote. If they do, he has a problem. The district is 45% Latino, 42% white, 7% Asian and 3% black.
Luckily, a great young progressive Latino by the name of Ricardo Franco is running to replace him and Blue America has been happy to endorse him. He's a local businessman whose family has been in the area since 1912 and unlike Donald Trump, whose daddy had to pull strings to get him into the Wharton School of Business, Ricardo got in on his own. He has a keen insight on how to communicate progressive ideas to this traditional region in ways that feel familiar and new at the same time. And while Nunes, who is of Portuguese ancestry, says he "doesn't mind" being called Hispanic but thinks the term is "too broad" Ricardo speaks Spanish and is proud to call himself Latino.
Devin Nunes has been in Washington for 16 years and has lost touch with his community. Today he thinks the only person he needs to please in this world is Donald Trump.
He's going to find out this November that he is wrong.
Ricardo Franco is the future of the Democratic Party and Blue America is proud to support him. If we help him beat Trump's most loyal henchman it would send a powerful message to both parties in Washington that progressives in this country have decided that enough is enough.
Please give what you can to help send Ricardo Franco to Washington.
Thank you for your support.
Digby, for the entire Blue America team
[bolding and solicitation link are as in original] Hullabaloo readers know Digby, so if unfamiliar, check Hullabaloo out. The Blue America/Digby item has been carried in several progressive sites and blogs; e.g.,
Snail mail for Franco contributions per his campaign website notes an international reach:
Franco for Congress, P.O. Box 27830, Fresno, CA 93729, United States
Compare Down With Tyranny, here, post dated Jan. 29, - harsh on Janz - again a lengthy excerpt:
So... can a Democrat beat Nunes in November. The party establishment wants to settle on conservative Democrat, Deputy District attorney Andrew Janz. Before Janz hired some consultants to clue him in a little I spoke with him on the phone about his campaign. When I asked him about Mediare-for-All [sic] and single payer, he didn't seem to even know what either one was. Even today, his website touts the preferred DCCC healthcare message: "fix Obamacare." After Janz said he didn't know what single payer is, he said he'd like to tell me what his motivations were for running. I said that would be perfect. Bit [sic] when he started talking, my jaw dropped. First he talked about how the death penalty isn't used enough in this country and that he'd like to make sure its used more frequently but before I could follow up, he was bailing about how the 2nd Amendment needs to be protected. I was dumbfounded and asked him if he was running as a Democrat at which point he said Central Valley Democrats are different. Yeah, I guess so.
The progressive in the race is from a family that's been living in the central valley for generations. He got an Ivy League education and has been working in the private sector in the Central Valley since he graduated. His website's issues page goes right to single payer: "I fully support Medicare for All and pledge to cosponsor it if elected to Congress. I believe that healthcare is a human right, and will ensure that we maintain access to emergency, preventative, and reproductive healthcare." Very clear difference between the two candidates. Now it will be up the the voters of Fresno and Tulare counties, not the Establishment to decide who goes up against Nunes in November. If you want to help make sure it's Franco, please click on the Blue America California congressional thermometer on the right [link location] and contribute what you can to his campaign.
So let's hear directly from Rico. I asked him if he had read the Fresno Bee editorial. You bet he had:
"Nunes has long been missing-in-action for his constituents. Frankly, he's been an embarrassment to the region for a long while. Now, he's an embarrassment to the entire country.
The Democratic establishment, however, hasn't done any better. Otherwise, they would have taken this seat a long time ago. They just don't seem to learn their lesson. Even today at the pre-endorsement conference a party delegate was accused of forging a nomination ballot... for a second time! I was utterly shocked when people 'in the know' tell me that it's not surprising to them and that it's just 'business as usual.'
No. This cannot be business as usual. No respectable voter would tolerate this level of ignorance from their employees, employers, colleagues, etc. It becomes very obvious why the Democratic establishment continues to fail to support a winning candidate that can win: incompetence. They are more concerned with funneling money into the corporate democratic campaign machine than actually winning an election.
Our canvassers have been out for a few weeks now meeting with voters in the district. This type of outreach is crucial in our area as air-time and social media does not turn out the vote like it does in other areas of the country. When you have motivated, passionate volunteers to help you canvass it also becomes extraordinarily cost-effective. It's the only way you can take down Nunes, the most prolific fundraiser in the Republican Party.
The Fresno Bee is spot-on when they mention the district is more concerned about jobs and water than Nunes playing Inspector Clouseau. Nunes is a disgrace to the country, but you must still have a message and platform to lift up the constituents if you want to win. I am the only candidate that offers progressive, viable solutions to lift up our community. I'm also the only candidate that speaks Spanish and that is Latino. So while the establishment continues to deliberate who their next loser to Nunes will be our campaign is drawing out the progressive, liberal base to defeat Nunes. Our candid, no-nonsense message is resonating so well with voters that we are even turning republicans. The Fresno Bee has got the message while the Democratic party hasn't. Rest assured that there will be a Blue Wave across the country, and it will start with a major swell here in the forgotten land of California's Central Valley where grass-root progressive campaigning will elect real people to represent them in Washington."
As noted in earlier "Muck the stable" posting, Janz is getting far more national mainstream media attention than other CA 22 Democratic Party candidates. And the money data reflects that. Franco has endorsements noted on his Facebook page. Those endorsements appear consistent with his being regarded as the "progressive" candidate; again, note that national mainstream has its focus upon Andrew Janz, the top Democrat fundraiser. Janz in turn has a clear DCCC shoutout twit [yeah, I know they call them tweets, but it's Twitter, and I call them twits]:
https://mobile.twitter.com/JanzforCongress/status/928774948356636672
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Online, there is a twelve minute YouTube interview with candidate Franco.
Last, for now, website DUMP NUNES!
https://fresnoalliance.com/dump-nunes/
Five candidates are featured with an opening image showing Franco has learned the Frankenhand [not Frankenstein] lesson.
Beyond that, (make of it what you will), again a somewhat extended excerpt, given that five Democratic Party candidates participated:
Andrew Janz, speaking at a June 16 Congressional District 22 candidate forum in Visalia said that Nunes “is basically pretending to be a local when he really now has become the epitome of a Washington insider. So, what better person to challenge this Congressman who is under an ethics investigation than a local prosecutor.” Janz is a prosecutor with the violent crimes unit of the Fresno County District Attorney’s office.
Five candidates anxious to have the opportunity to run against and defeat Nunes attended the standing-room-only Visalia forum. All of them are Democrats. Tulare County City Council Member Jose Sigala spoke about his deep roots in the area, connection to the civil rights movement, support for LGBTQ rights and how he was the only candidate in Tulare County endorsed by Planned Parenthood. The Central Valley Progressive PAC (CVPPAC) endorsed Sigala in his bid for the Tulare City Council, which he won.
[...] All five candidates at the Visalia forum consistently took progressive positions on important issues such as climate change, healthcare reform, fighting poverty and the need to elect a representative that reflects the values of the majority in the 22nd Congressional District.
Ricardo “Rico” Franco spoke passionately about many specific issues but believes that it is our core progressive values that will take us to victory. He said, “When you start to talk about the things we all want, affordable healthcare, affordable education, help for our veterans, lots of good infrastructure around here so we don’t feel like we are leaving people behind. When we start talking about those morals and those values and we make it less about party politics and all of these catchphrases that anger people, I know that we can bring people together.”
Franco went on to say “that if we get back to our core values this region right here can shine and be a leader for the country. This is the most beautiful piece of gold in this entire state and it can shine for the rest of the country, not just to see who we are, but to actually lead and be a model for progress of what the rest of the country can be.”
Dr. Mallory Kremer talked about driving through the state and sees “that there are really two Californias. I see so much wealth and opportunity in the coastal cities, and in the Central Valley it feels like a completely different state. My vision is to share some of that opportunity with the Central Valley and to make it a destination, to fight the brain drain, to create economic opportunity, to have it be a place where people want to live.” According to Kremer, this can be done by “bringing medical schools to the Valley, improving education and the air quality. This will make this a healthier place to live.”
Candidate Bobby Bliatout is the CEO of the Greater Fresno Health Organization. Bliatout says that he started thinking about running for political office when he watched the attacks on the Affordable Health Care Act in Congress this spring. At the forum, he said that “healthcare is a basic human right. This country already believes that. I don’t care what anyone else says.
The Visalia candidate forum was hosted by the Tulare County–based Progressives United for Social Justice and Human Rights (PUSH). This event was a collaboration among PUSH, Together We Will Fresno, Fresno Indivisible, South Valley Civics, the Fresno County Democratic Party and the Tulare County Democratic Party.
The CVPPAC has not endorsed any of the candidates in the 22nd Congressional District race. According to the group’s president, Pam Whalen, “federal campaign contribution reporting makes it difficult for the CVPPAC to give Congressional candidates money. The reporting is so burdensome that our group has focused on local and regional races.”
[...] Another reason the CVPPAC focuses on local elections is that most members believe their limited resources are better spent supporting candidates running for local office. The millions of dollars it takes to win a Congressional race is not within the CVPPAC’s reach.
Many political observers say that Janz has the early advantage in this race. They say he has a good foundation of support, he is articulate and well-connected and, as a prosecutor in the DA’s office, can win over some moderate and conservative voters. The district typically votes solidly Republican. In 2016, Nunes received 67.6% of the vote against Democratic challenger Louie Campos. In 2014, Nunes won with 72% of the vote. The argument for going with a more moderate Democrat in CD22, one who can appeal to some Republicans, might work now that Nunes has made himself a lightning rod on the national stage.”
Alternatively, an argument can be made that one of the more progressive candidates can inspire the voter base with a populist message and increase voter turnout enough to win the election.
The CVPPAC does not have a position on which strategy has the greatest chance of victory in this district, but one key factor will be fund-raising and getting volunteers to work on the campaign to elect a progressive candidate to CD22. Information from the Center for Responsive Politics (www.opensecrets.org) and the Federal Elections Commission show Nunes already has a war chest of more than $3 million.
Why should corporate lobbyists, the super wealthy and large (yet anonymous) out-of-state Republican PACs be able to buy Central Valley elections, subverting democracy and the electoral process? This is further evidence why campaign finance reform is so important. It is also a reason why more people should get involved in grassroots politics—to elect candidates who share their core values.
A brief Janz interview video. A Franco interview comparable in length, at the Fresno Womens March. The earlier Muck the stable No.1 post included a shorter Janz video, same event. Franco, Spanish Language ten minute interview video.