Dr. Kermit Jones Has Fighting Chance to Turn Obernolte’s Old District (That’s Us) Blue
The new 3rd Congressional District favors Republicans because they have a five percent advantage in registered voters, 38.3 percent to 33.2 percent, but independents will determine the result. There are 10 counties in the district. In the primary the leading Democrat, Dr. Kermit Jones beat the leading Republican, Kevin Kiley, in half of the counties including both Inyo and Mono. Neither candidate garnered over 50 percent in any of the counties. Kiley got 46.6 percent in Yuba County and Jones 49.1 percent in Mono.
Republican votes totaled about 70,000, Democrats 61,000. Republicans usually turn out in larger numbers for primaries. In the previous district, in the top two system, it was common for both final candidates to be Republicans. Both Kiley and Jones have raised over a million dollars for this race. It is likely to be closer than many have predicted.
Dr. Jones’ victory statement included, “As a doctor and veteran I took an oath to put people first and that’s what I’ll do in Congress.” Jones was a U.S. Navy flight surgeon with a Marine helicopter casualty evacuation squadron in Iraq. He also was a White House Fellow working with the Secretary of Health and Human Services to improve the quality of care for veterans and on lowering the price of drugs. Jones says he, “is running for Congress because too many people are struggling with the skyrocketing cost of care and prescription drugs.”
His issues include access to doctors and treatment in rural areas, wildfire resilience, and to be above partisan politics working for solutions. Unlike Kiley, Jones believes in a women’s right to choose. The Sacramento Bee endorsed Jones. It did not help Kiley when in a debate he would not acknowledge that Biden won the 2020 election but instead lied about the Bee’s reporting of the election.
Kiley, endorsed by Trump, is still complaining about Governor Newsom’s handling of Covid. The Bay Area News Group did a statistical analysis of the one million American Covid deaths comparing the Bay Area’s numbers with the rest of the country. The Bay Area had an 81 percent vaccination rate and implemented a high level of mask wearing. They discovered that if the rest of the country had addressed the pandemic in the same way it would have saved 651,000 lives. Kiley ran in the recall election gathering supporters ranting about those Bay Area mandates.
One of the few issues Kiley lists on his website is ‘school choice’ the Christian Right’s codeword for 50 years to reestablish racial segregation. From Kiley you hear all the Republican culture wars issues but nothing about what he would support that would actually come before the House.
Inflation touches all and Kiley blames it on our president. One item whose price has been escalating for a long time is insulin. 37 million Americans are at risk for diabetes and currently six to seven million take insulin. The House passed a measure to lower the price and other legislation to allow Medicare to negotiate lower prices for drugs. The bill would put a $35 cap on insulin for insured patients. The vote was 232 to 193. Only 12 Republicans voted yes, all the other 193 voted no. Would Kiley have voted with the 12 or with the 193? Jones has made it a priority.
The price of gas is a Republican and Kiley mantra. Their solution, make American energy independent again. They usually don’t offer details but when they do they say by signing more drilling site permits. The price of gas is tied to the world price of crude and oil companies have thousands of sites they have not drilled on yet so it wouldn’t bring the price of gas down, but it sounds good.
The Biden administration signed 3,557 oil and gas permits in his first year in office and that pace is likely to continue as they are opening up 700,000 more acres for bidding. The Trump administration signed about 2,600 their first year and their average for the other years is below Biden’s first year.
California buys about half of the Russian oil that is imported to the U.S. When Obama was president Russian oil imports dropped 22 percent. During Trump’s presidency they went up 39 percent, 142 million barrels in 2017 to 197.7 million in 2020. Since Kiley is a Trump acolyte would he argue to do what Trump did, is that the energy independence he is for? Does he support or oppose Biden’s ban on the import of Russian oil to help Ukraine?
Follow this race closely.
It’s Throwback Thursday and we are sure you know who this fine, famous, Mammoth Lakes person is. There are so many hints in this photo, you just have to. Let us know by calling us at 760-934-3929 or email us at sales@mammothtimes.com. The last Throwback Thursday we ran was a photo of Phil Higerd, a beloved local plumber, in a photo taken on Aug. 18, 1994 by Mammoth Times photographer Jane Dove Juneau.