Mike Honda’s time has come. Nothing has occurred between the June primary and now to sway Metro’s opinion. Ro Khanna, Honda’s challenger, remains the best option to represent Silicon Valley in Congress.
When we last took up this issue, Honda was falling asleep in town halls and on the House floor. Since that time, Metro uncovered email evidence that shows the congressman’s staff illegally coordinated a pay-to-play scheme with his campaign, linking official State Department invites to campaign cash and endorsements. The emails also showed that Honda has staff members running personal errands on taxpayer time.
The newly formed 17th District stretches across Santa Clara County and up to Fremont, and as the district’s boundaries have changed, so have its constituents. Residents are less enamored with progressive battle cries or protracted apologies for war crimes than they’re concerned with immigration and tax reform.
Khanna offers Silicon Valley not only a strong Democrat who mirrors Honda’s stance on social issues, but also an informed representative who won’t require staff to baby-step him through an Internet tutorial. Khanna already knows the language of tech, and he has his own ideas on how to shape the global economy. As we wrote in May, the center of innovative thinking deserves an active, engaged legislator.
A 38-year-old patent lawyer, former trade representative for President Obama and Stanford University economics lecturer, Khanna combines both social principles and a passion for economic development. As an author and trade official, he’s pushed for the revitalization of American manufacturing.
He has also stayed true to those principles, opposing government overreach and advocating for reform. Khanna, unlike the seven-term incumbent Honda, is in touch with today’s Silicon Valley and would give this region the kind of representation it deserves.
The revelations found in Metro’s reporting on House violations by Honda’s staff and campaign show that a concerted effort has been waged to maintain the status quo. Honda has been a good soldier for progressive causes, but his legislative record is an embarrassment. He fudged in claiming responsibility for securing billions in earmarks, but he never led the charge on any of these bills. The only legislation Honda has truly authored led to the renaming of a local post office.
Silicon Valley needs to lead the discussion in Congress, and Khanna offers the best chance to start a new dialogue.
Other Congressional Endorsements:
18th District: Anna Eshoo (D-Atherton)
19th District: Zoe Lofgren (D-San Jose)
It’s the Obama reference that has been worried, have you been watching him lately, playing a lot of golf, and focused on anything but real politics. We’ve been screwed over on Obamacare too. Yeh not sure who is getting my vote. May have to just give it to the devil you know. But then again you make a good point he’s asleep too. Give me something that has been really convinced the Ro is the man?
Dear Mr. NOT SURE:
Let me help lift the burden of indecision from your shoulders: IT DOES’T MATTER!
Whoever wins is going to be an irrelevant back-bencher in a GOP controlled House.
Hondo will have plenty of time for naps and social networking with his voting base of big government dependents.
Ro-Ro will be a JUNIOR back bencher, sharpening pencils, cleaning chalkboards, and dusting erasers for Nancy Pelosi.
You’ve got more important things to do than worry about the fate of these dead-enders.
Like Sam Liccardo, Ro Khanna is against pensions for hard working folks. Don’t vote for him.
> Ro Khanna is against pensions for hard working folks.
Wait. I missed this.
Did Ro Khanna actually say: “I’m against pensions for hard working folks”?
Is there a video on YouTube or somewhere that I can look at to see if he actually said this?
If Ro actually said this and believes this, can you identify some hard working person who had his or her pension taken away by Ro?
Is Ro going to refuse to take his own pension from Stanford?
What’s going on?
Ro Khanna would never say “I am against pensions for hard working folks.” He is a politician. What he can do is use coded language to strike the right chord in the right quarters. There is a huge pension debate going on now between Liccardo’s camp and Cortese’s. Khanna knows voters will show up in November to vote for Liccardo’s anti-public pension message. He is trying to take a piece of that vote by attacking Honda for “double dipping” on public pensions.
> Ro Khanna is against pensions for hard working folks.
> Ro Khanna would never say “I am against pensions for hard working folks.”
So, you were just reading his mind.
I guess what we need next is another debate, but not between the candidates, but between the people who read the candidates’ minds.
Nice sarcasm, love it! You must be smarter than anyone else you know. No it is a little more than reading minds. He actually has proposed “pension reform” and Santa Clara County teachers have spoken out against it. Look it up. Or heck just rest assured that you are the biggest smart alec in the room. Either way, I don’t really care.
> Nice sarcasm, love it!
Call it sarcasm. Call it irony.
It is a wonderful educational technique for teaching stupid people that the things they say are stupid.
They’ll thank me for this some day.
Have fun with that “educational technique.” Just be sure to use a towel when you’re done.
I watched the debate, Ro Khanna was like ten times more impressive. You can readily see how sharp Khanna is, his command of the facts was just so impressive. You didn’t get hot air out of Khnna, he told you what he believed, where he stood, and what his goals would be, if elected. Listening to Honda drone on – and making little sense in his remarks -practically put me to sleep. This guy’s a Congressman? That’s the reaction many get when listening to Honda. I think he’d make a good Drivers Ed teacher or something like that, but Congressman? No way. Why does the 17th district have such medicore Representative in Washington. The district has all these incredible innovators in it, and Honda is the best you can come up with? Voters have a chance here to do something about this, they can elect this youthful Stanford Professor Ro Khnna instead of Honda, do this you will get better representation in Washington, I think
http://downwithtyranny.blogspot.com/2014/10/has-ro-khannas-disgraceful-campaign.html
Khanna, a corporate Democrat eager to cut Social Security and Medicare benefits to lower the tax rates for his wealthy supporters, sounds like a Republican. And Republicans and conservative pseudo-Democrats have financed his jihad against progressive icon Mike Honda in the Silicon Valley. Plenty of rich Silicon Valley tycoons with far too much money are behind Khanna’s relentless bid for office. Many of the companies, like Google and Facebook, who have helped the NSA and CIA with unconstitutional domestic spying against their customers, are Khanna’s biggest contributors. Google, in fact, is his biggest single donor.
Big money has flowed into his campaign from the Wall Street banksters as well, particularly from Morgan Stanley, venture capitalists Kleiner, Perkins, Goldman Sachs, Pershing Square Capital Management, US Venture Partners, Artiman Ventures, Sutter Hill Ventures and Cambrian Ventures.
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Just say NO to Ro.
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from the DWT blog:
Khanna, a corporate Democrat eager to cut Social Security and Medicare benefits to lower the tax rates for his wealthy supporters, sounds like a Republican. And Republicans and conservative pseudo-Democrats have financed his jihad against progressive icon Mike Honda in the Silicon Valley. Plenty of rich Silicon Valley tycoons with far too much money are behind Khanna’s relentless bid for office. Many of the companies, like Google and Facebook, who have helped the NSA and CIA with unconstitutional domestic spying against their customers, are Khanna’s biggest contributors. Google, in fact, is his biggest single donor.
Big money has flowed into his campaign from the Wall Street banksters as well, particularly from Morgan Stanley, venture capitalists Kleiner, Perkins, Goldman Sachs, Pershing Square Capital Management, US Venture Partners, Artiman Ventures, Sutter Hill Ventures and Cambrian Ventures.
———
Just say NO to Ro.
~