Last week when the San Jose Silicon Valley Chamber of Commerce PAC announced their endorsement of Democratic candidate Ro Khanna, praising him as “right-of-center on tech and business issues”, it couldn’t have been a surprise to those watching the race for California’s 17th congressional district that Khanna would be “honored” by what most Democrats would see as an insult. Since taking the number two spot in the “top-two” primary election against the sitting Democratic Congressman and member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, Mike Honda, Khanna has gratefully accepted conservative endorsements that would have hampered him in the primary.
Soon after the primaries, Khanna was “happy” to receive the support of the disgraced Republican ex-congressman Ernie Konnyu, who was rebuked by his own party in the ‘80s after being accused of sexual harassment, three times! Konnyu pushed for his friends at the Tea Party Express to endorse Ro Khanna, the same Tea Party Express that was recently accused of using the troops in Afghanistan to scam donations from their followers, who has yet to formally endorse Khanna.
Even after Ernie Konnyu took to Facebook, unloading a homophobic rant directed at Democrat Evan Low for his efforts to encourage the FDA in reconsidering their policy on blood donations by gay and bi-sexual men, Ro Khanna remained silent for a week. Some started to wonder out loud whether Ro agreed with the attack on his fellow Democrat, or if he was just afraid to upset his growing right-wing support by publicly denouncing Konnyu. Eventually Ro did release a statement proclaiming his belief that “laws discriminating against LGBT individuals are unconstitutional” and statements by his supporters are “not reflective of my [sic] or my campaign.” Although Khanna couldn’t be bothered to mention Ernie Konnyu by name, he did find the time to directly attack Evan Low for making an issue of his silence.
The next entry in the parade of questionable endorsees is San Jose’s mayor Chuck Reed. Although he claims to be a Democrat, his policies tell a different story. Besides being opposed to marriage equality and limiting campaign contributions, Reed fought against the widely popular and successful minimum wage hike, even resorting to right-wing scare tactics, claiming it a “threat” to jobs.
Mayor Chuck Reed, a leader of the opposition, called on voters to reject the minimum wage increase, stating that Measure D was the biggest threat to the plan to attract more retail stores downtown.
A year later, it is clear that raising San Jose’s minimum wage has been an incredible success. The data shows that under San Jose’s minimum wage, unemployment was reduced, the number of businesses grew, the number of minimum wage jobs expanded, average employee hours remained constant and the economy was stimulated.
Like something out of Wisconsin’s Gov. Walker’s failed playbook, Reed’s pension reform plan has demoralized public workers and reduced the number of San Jose police officers to a point where people are questioning if San Jose’s recent uptick in crime rates are related to Reed’s pension plan. Unlike Ro, I don’t see these as the policies of “an American hero”, when the termed-out Mayor Reed leaves office, he’ll leave his legacy to his successor to clean up. Maybe Khanna should have contained his enthusiasm a bit, since on the same day his “hero” endorsed a Republican for state controller.
To balance its budget, the city imposed a 10 percent pay cut for police officers, and voters approved [Mayor Reed’s] city employee pension cutbacks last year. But San Jose has lost or laid off hundreds of officers, and its active duty force has dropped to about 920 officers. [Auditor, Sharon Winslow] Erickson said the dwindling police force has likely contributed to the recent sharp drop in arrests.
The ex-teacher and long time progressive representative Mike Honda has always had the support of his working-class constituents, along with Democratic Party heavyweights like Howard Dean and Ro’s ex-boss President Obama. All but one of district 17’s Democratic clubs had endorsed Honda in the primaries, but the last couple weeks, has caused even them to rescind their endorsement of Ro in favor of Honda.
“I believe the Club changed its endorsement because, since the primary, Ro Khanna has shown his true conservative colors. He said he was proud to have Ernie Konnyu’s endorsement, even after Mr. Konnyu made shamefully homophobic statements, and openly invited the Tea Party to aid Ro Khanna’s campaign. He has embraced the endorsement of the conservative Chamber PAC, which opposed raising the minimum wage, while still insisting he won’t take PAC support. The vote of the Club reflects the knowledge that there is only one true Progressive candidate in this race, and he is Mike Honda.” ~ John Comiskey, member of the Berryessa/North San Jose Democratic Club
Over the next 10 weeks we will see how far Ro is willing to veer his campaign to the right in his efforts to please his newfound right-wing and corporate friends.
GlenThePlumber is a regular contributor to The Daily Kos.
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