One year ago today, we took
our first look at the U.S. House Representative from California’s 1st District, Doug LaMalfa, who pushes all sorts of false narratives to back his policies, such as a claim that abortions increase the risk of cancer in women, or that the Department of Homeland Security was trying to "buy all the bullets" to curb the rights of gun owners by creating a monopoly on the ammunition. He also expressed outrage that the history of the gay rights movement would be taught in California schools, and has tried quoting the teachings of Jesus as a motivation to kick the poor off of food stamps (because Jesus is all about flipping the bird to the hungry). The more amazing thing about his outrage over people on government assistance is his family's rice farm gets $5 million a year in subsidies from them, so apparently he's fine with welfare as long as it lines his already-wealthy pockets. LaMalfa also grows increasingly frustrated that his conservative northern Californian district's demographics don't match the policies of the majority of the state, so he's also discussed a plan to break California up into a number of smaller states to reflect that, and once even made a call for Northern California to secede from the rest of the state, describing an "uprising" as the method to make it happen.
Even as alarming as all of that might be, Doug LaMalfa was easily re-elected in 2014, earning 61% of the vote against Democrat Heidi Hall. He's been somewhat less vocal, but still is voting along party lines around 97% of the time, with the occasional out-of-touch quote:
-July 10th, 2014: Rep. LaMalfa votes for House Amendment 1040, to prevent the implementation of the dreaded United Nations Agenda 21 Treaty, that in spite of just being recommended climate change guidelines, have many conspiracy theorists within the extreme right convinced it’s a plot for global domination.
-January 22nd, 2015: an anti-abortion bill, HR 7, was moving through the House, and was halted because even some members of the GOP were put off by the language in the bill regarding its definition of rape. Doug LaMalfa, however, had no problem with that, and voted for it anyway.
-February 3rd, 2015: Rep. LaMalfa co-sponsors and votes for the latest Republican attempt at repealing the Affordable Care Act. This in spite of the fact that the law is not just working, but better than experts predicted.
-March 3rd, 2015: LaMalfa votes against funding the Department of Homeland Security as part of a Republican protest of President Obama’s executive orders on immigration.
-April 30th, 2015: LaMalfa speaks at the annual "Washington: A Man of Prayer" event, where he expresses his worries about the upcoming ruling on same sex marriage, saying we live in "seemingly godless times".
-May 13th, 2015: Doug LaMalfa voted for HR 36, a ban on abortion at 20 weeks, which he also co-sponsored.
-September 11th, 2015: LaMalfa votes against the United States' nuclear treaty with Iran.
-September 18th, 2015: Rep. LaMalfa co-sponsors and votes with most House Republicans to defund Planned Parenthood, based on highly edited “sting” videos submitted by a Pro-Life advocacy group that have been repeatedly debunked by investigators.
Will 2016 end up the same for Doug LaMalfa? It's tough to say. He did win by 20+ percent in 2014, but in a presidential election year when turnout is expected to be huge... Democrats in California are going to be out in droves, especially for a historic year when the United States could be electing its first woman, or first Jewish president on the Democratic side of the aisle. Adding to the possibility of an upset? California just passed automatic voter registration.
Studies have shown that increased voter turnout skews elections in favor of Democrats, so maybe, just maybe, LaMalfa's seat will be more competitive 13 months from now. Time will tell...