Rep. Mike Honda, as you may know, is a veteran Democrat and beloved progressive stalwart seeking re-election in California's 17th Congressional District, based in Silicon Valley. He's a widely respected lawmaker and a political mentor to many in the Asian-American community. It's very hard to find anything objectionable about Honda, whether you're a liberal activist or a tech titan.
But none of that stopped another Democrat, former Commerce Department official Ro Khanna, from challenging Honda this year anyway. Khanna's running a muddled campaign and hasn't been able to articulate a clear reason why he thinks voters ought to dump Honda, except that he seems to think Honda hasn't been sufficiently lickspittle toward the tech industry. Oh, and Honda's too old:
In the ade, Khanna's narrator makes an extremely transparent reference to Honda's age (he's 72), asking rhetorically, "Isn't it time to put the old politics aside?" The ad then cites a couple of newspapers endorsements of Khanna, including one that claimed Khanna "is ready for the Congress of tomorrow, while Honda is a politician of the past."
What's next? Charges that Mike Honda's VCR still blinks "12:00"? That he can't name all the Kardashians? This is a ridiculous line of attack, and shows how empty the premise of Khanna's entire campaign is. Khanna is running for office purely to further his personal ambition, and that's the very worst reason to turn out a trusted, proven progressive like Honda.
So please contribute $3 today to keep Mike Honda in office.