Khanna camp accuses Honda campaign of ‘disparaging’ politics. By Deepak Chitnis WASHINGTON, DC: The Ro Khanna campaign has accused Democratic incumbent Mike Honda of conspiring with a Political Action Committee (PAC) to send local constituents information that disparages Khanna and props up Republican candidate Vanila Singh Mathur, just days away from the crucial California primaries.
Honda and Khanna, both Democrats, are running for California’s 17th Congressional District, located around Silicon Valley. Honda currently holds the seat, and despite Khanna’s robust fundraising throughout the campaign, has relied on his longstanding political and community ties to maintain a strong lead in the polls. Singh, a Republican, announced her candidacy in December in a largely Democratic area of the state. The PAC in question is Working for Us, a Washington, DC-based PAC that was “launched to hold Members of Congress accountable at the ballot box on issues that foster greater economic security for America’s families,” according to its website. The strategy that Honda and Working for US are trying to employ, alleges the Khanna camp, is to make Khanna seem like the weaker Democratic candidate against Honda, while also making Mathur seem like a solid alternative. But why help promote a Republican against a Democrat? California’s primary system is a bit unusual, in that it uses what is called a top-two system. The two candidates that have the most votes, regardless of party affiliation, will go on to the general election. So, as long as Khanna gets the second-highest vote count in the primary, he can go on to the general election against Honda, even though both are Democrats. At the very least, if the alleged Honda/PAC scheme worked out, Khanna would lose the June 3 primary next week, allowing Singh and Honda to advance to theNovember 4 general election, which Honda would likely win comfortably due to the 17th District typically leaning left anyway.
But, even if Khanna were to eke out a win next week over Singh – at this point, Honda is all but guaranteed to get past the primary. Honda’s personal role in this remains a mystery, nothing more than finger-pointing and accusations from the Khanna camp. However, a source within the Khanna campaign told The American Bazaar that this was “dirty politics,” and that the person who runs Working for Us is, in fact, a recent donor to Honda’s campaign. Meanwhile, Khanna’s campaign manager, Leah Cowan, released a statement of her own. “This is a desperate move by people who claim to be progressive champions, but spend money in support of a Republican candidate who strongly opposes many of the things Congressman Honda purportedly stands for,” said Cowan. “This is the worst type of old-style politics and Congressman Honda should publicly denounce it. Voters deserve better than a constant stream of negative campaigning and dirty tricks.” Cowan said that the Honda campaign was “forced to publicly backpedal” on Wednesday, regarding certain false claims it made about Khanna during his time with the US Department of Commerce. On Thursday, the PAC scheme to disparage Khanna and promote Singh was uncovered.
The role of Working for Us is a matter of public record, as they’ve already filed their mandatory spending reports with the Federal Election Commission (FEC). According to the FEC website, Working for Us has spent $21,425.75 on literature promoting Singh, all of which went towards “direct mail.” However, the PAC spent more than twice that amount on sending mailers that oppose Khanna – $45,113.69, to be exact. The expenditure date for both of those transactions was May 28 (this past Wednesday), and both payments were made through Mack Sumner Communications, a lobbying firm based just outside of Washington, DC. According to the San Jose Mercury News, the Working for Us disbursement is the first independent expenditure to affect the race thus far. In January, Khanna reportedly asked Honda to sign a pledge that would block this kind of activity from playing a part in the campaign, entitled the “People’s Pledge,” but Honda refused, apparently because he stood to lose too much support by doing so. Although poll information is somewhat dodgy, as tends to be the case in relatively smaller races like this, Honda and Khanna are leading the race to win next week’s primary. While Honda has maintained a lead throughout, Khanna has slowly been closing the gap, and seems to have enough support to push through and make it to the general contest. The only way to know for sure what, if any, effect this Working for Us scheme may have had is to wait until the results are announced on Tuesday night. Khanna’s campaign has remained confident throughout the race, and shows no sign of flagging momentum.