Noted misogynist and one-term congressmember Ernie Konnyu (pronounced, con you) of San Jose, is attempting to garner funds and the support of the Tea Party Express to unseat Democratic representative, and member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, Mike Honda. His efforts appear to be falling a bit short of his expectations, he's raised no donations and he's only received a tepid response from Tea Party Express chairman, Sal Russo.
"Sal was out of the country but was open to talking about it when he returned,” said Tea Party Express spokesperson Taylor Budowich. “I believe that’s how it was left. We remain undecided as far as if we will or will not be involved in the race, but it’s on our radar.”
BuzzFeed
There is no doubt interest among the membership of the Tea Party Express to dispose of the very popular progressive, but maybe they are tiring of their disposable income being used to feather the nest of shyster Sal and his gaggle of turkeys.
The Our Country Deserves Better PAC, which created the Tea Party Express, “the most aggressive and influential national Tea Party group in the political arena,” according to its website, spent some of the $9.3 million it ran through in this election cycle on bus tours and rallies.
[…]
The PAC spent almost half its money on fundraising, often using the Russo, Marsh firm or affiliated consultants. That fundraising ratio — spending almost $1 to earn $2 — is very high in the world of political action committees.
ProPublica
Of course when Sal does return from “out of the country” he may be too busy defending himself from the latest charges of misleading donors to help Konnyu in his quest to unseat Honda.
[…] The charity later described the fundraising drive as a rousing success: In less than five weeks, all 800 Marines in a 1st Marine Division battalion nicknamed Geronimo were sent care packages and notes in Afghanistan, it claimed.
But that couldn't have been true. The Marines of Geronimo weren't even in Afghanistan during Move America Forward's fund drive. Instead, they were deployed more than 3,000 miles away, in Okinawa, Japan.
[…] Yet an examination of its fundraising appeals, tax records and other documents shows that Move America Forward has repeatedly misled donors and inflated its charitable accomplishments, while funneling millions of dollars in revenue to the men behind the group and their political consulting firms.
ProPublica
But not all the news is bad for Konnyu. He found one person that seems to be “happy” about his efforts,
Ro Khanna.
“Ernie [Konnyu] has publicly endorsed Ro and we’re happy to have his support,” said [Ro Khanna] campaign spokesperson Tyler Law. “That said, he is acting on his own.”
BuzzFeed
Ro Khanna doesn’t appear to be too discerning when it comes to raising campaign funding. He has eagerly taken money from Silicon Valley’s Tech elite such as Marissa Mayer of Yahoo, and
Sean Parker of Napster. As a former Obama administration trade official, many Democratic donors were excited to help Khanna in his efforts to fill the seat of soon to be retiring Pete Stark (CA-15), but when Stark decided against retirement Khanna set his eyes on district 17 and Mike Honda.
Feeling double-crossed, some of his early supporters asked for a refund.
"You are not using our money the way you promised," read the letter from Sophia Yen, Steve Silberman and Ted Fang. "Instead, you’re using it to run against Congressman Mike Honda, a man who has spent his life increasing opportunities for people to better themselves, including you. We cannot support you in this and we don’t want our money to play any part in it either."
HuffPo
Ro was heading to an early defeat in the primary. He was third in the polls behind Honda and Republican Vanila Singh
until two late Republican entries in the open-primary which effectively siphoned off support of the Republican allowing Khanna to finish in second place in the “top-two” primary.
President Obama and Mike Honda laughing at the teabaggers
And it doesn’t seem that only those who opened their pocketbooks for Ro are upset with his underhanded, district-shifting ways.
Howard Dean felt it was so important to keep Honda in the house, that he offered his first ever endorsement in a Democratic Party primary election. Even Khanna’s ex-boss, President Obama chose to endorse Honda early in the primaries.
Although Rep. Honda enjoys the admiration of his constituents and endorsements of local politicians, unions, the Santa Clara County Democratic Party and even Daily Kos, in a race that should be easily won by the sitting member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, we must spend effort and money to fight off technocrat Khanna and keep the 17th district in the hands of a true liberal, Mike Honda.
Silicon Valley Kossacks Meet-Up
This will be an opportunity to get to know each other and discuss what we would like to work on as a group. Options to meet are next Sat afternoon 8/16 following the Jim Beall annual creek clean up or any time on Sunday 8/17.
If you are a Daily Kos reader in districts 17, 18, and 19, we want to invite you to our group. Silicon Valley Kossacks includes support and direct actions for these three districts.
If you are not a registered user of Daily Kos but would like to join us, please open a Daily Kos account with an original user name, and comment below. We look forward to meeting you.
Sunday, August 17
Silicon Valley Kossacks Meet-up
TIME: 1pm
LOCATION: Gordon Biersch
33 East San Fernando Street • San Jose
ORGANIZER: Send Glen The Plumber a KosMail to attend.
RSVPs:
1. Glen The Plumber
2. remembrance
3. TheLittleOne
4. Lusty
5. madhaus
9. norm
7. slowbutsure
8. Ahmad
10. Senor Unoball
11. Mrs. Senor Unoball (yikes...that sounds wrong)
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Maybees:
Cali Scribe
Mr. Scribe
navajo
Meteor Blades
esquimaux
fiercefilms
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