GOP once more making Pelosi the boogeyman
Republicans are once again trying to tie California Democratic congressional candidates to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, arguing that anyone supporting the party leader is just too liberal to represent the state’s purple swing districts.
“Do you stand with Pelosi or Americans?” Republican Mike Garcia asked in a March 23 campaign email aimed at Democrat Christy Smith, his opponent for an open Los Angelesarea congressional district.
In the Central Valley, Republican Ted Howze is accusing Democratic Rep. Josh Harder of Turlock (Stanislaus County) of accepting campaign money “from party elites like Nancy Pelosi and (Oakland Rep.) Barbara Lee,” and telling donors he needed their help “to beat Nancy Pelosi’s protege Josh Harder.”
Farther south, Greg Raths, the Republican challenging Rep. Katie Porter of Irvine, complains that Porter “does not represent the interests of Orange County. She votes with Nancy Pelosi and (Los Angeles Democrat) Maxine Waters 95% of the time in Congress.”
Brian Maryott, a GOP businessman from San Juan Capistrano (Orange County), tells people he’s running against “Nancy Pelosi ally (Democratic Rep.) Mike Levin.”
While Pelosi has long been the designated GOP boogeyman for Republican fundraisers, their efforts have gained new life in recent weeks as the House speaker ran point on the Democrats’ largely successful battle to force changes in the emergency $2 trillion coronavirus relief bill President Trump signed last week.
Bakersfield Rep. Kevin McCarthy, the House Republican leader, accused Pelosi of trying to insert a liberal “wish list” of Democratic programs into the bill and complained: “The recent behavior of Nancy Pelosi is a national disgrace.”
It’s probably not a coincidence that, at the same time, McCarthy opened what he called “our Stop Pelosi Fund” and asked for contributions.
California elections won’t be about Pelosi, said Andy Orellana, a spokesman for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.
“Democrats proved in 2018 they could win on an agenda focused on delivering for California’s families ... regardless of Washington’s politics,” he said in an email.
That’s not how Republicans see it.
Before the relief bill’s final approval, the National Republican Congressional Committee argued in a series of blog posts that Pelosi was delaying passage of the funding measure and suggesting that Democrats like Smith, Fresno Rep. TJ Cox, and Orange County Reps. Harley Rouda and Gil Cisneros, all GOP targets in the fall election, were too willing to bow to the party leader.
“Will Christy Smith speak up while Nancy Pelosi holds America hostage?” one post asked. “Or is Smith too scared of Pelosi?”
If the attacks sound familiar, it’s because they are. Two years ago, Republicans kept up such a nonstop assault on Pelosi that plenty of Democratic congressional hopefuls, including some in California, backed away from her, even saying they would not support her for speaker if Democrats took back control of the House.
Republicans have to hope the antiPelosi effort this year works better than it did in 2018. Democrats won the House, Pelosi became speaker and the GOP lost the seven California seats they’re trying to grab back this November.