In what can only be described as Pay to Play, it appears Ro Khanna’s Campaign Chair, Steve Spinner sought to elicit a Hillary Clinton endorsement with an offer of over $50 million in possible donations to national races. In the 5/14/15 email to Hillary Clinton Campaign Chair, John Podesta, Spinner implied if Khanna could get Hillary’s endorsement it could “convince [Rep. Mike] Honda to retire & pass the baton to Ro.” According to Spinner, Khanna’s “tech and South Asian donors” would be “inspired to give big once Ro wins” pledging they “can be a source of at least $50 million for the Democratic Party in national races.”
Spinner also suggested other ways to force Rep. Honda to retire, such as having Podesta call Honda “as HRC Campaign Chair” and “make it clear to him that his running is not good for the Party.” Or having Minority Leader, Nancy Pelosi “dual endorse both Ro and Mike” which “could end the race if done early.” It appears Podesta and Pelosi declined the Campaign’s offer, Hillary has not endorsed Khanna, Honda or any other local Congressional candidate, and Pelosi endorsed Rep. Honda.
The email also contains Spinner touting the support of technology and financial leaders that include “both Democrats and Republicans such as Eric Schmidt, John Doerr, Paul Otellini, Sheryl Sandberg, Marissa Mayer, Ron Conway, Vinod Khosla, Sean Parker, Marc Andreessen, Peter Thiel, Marc Benioff, Steve Luczo, George Roberts, Marc Lasry, and Andy Spahn.”
Spinner also argued “Honda is likely to vote against the TPP” and that “Ro has come out for it. The White House could make it clear to Honda that the President would dual endorse this time.” Honda did vote against the TPA (fast track) and although he remained non-committal, likely out of respect for the Democratic President, he publicly opposed it soon after receiving the full agreement. Hillary opposed the TPP in October of 2015, Khanna eventually opposed it in January of 2016.
Khanna has run his campaign as an outsider, anti-establishment politician seeking support of Bernie Sanders supporters and progressives, but the backroom dealing revealed in the email betray that image. He also claims he would stand up to his big-money donors but voters would be wise to question, why out the many hundreds running for Congress he is #1 with Wall St-type donors? What kind of backroom deals has he made with them?
#KhannaGate Update
After reviewing data that Ro Khanna and his campaign turned over through a Federal Court Order, Honda Campaign Counsel Gautam Dutta announced there was significant overlap in the Khanna Campaign’s data and the data stolen from Congressman Mike Honda’s Dropbox account.
“Brian Parvizshahi, Mr. Khanna’s former Campaign Manager, accessed the Honda Campaign’s Dropbox files at least 44 times dating back to January 2014 when he began his employment with the Khanna Campaign,” said Mr. Dutta. “Contrary to what Ro Khanna has been saying, the overlap in data is significant. Documents that Mr. Khanna was forced to turn over to our firm due to a Federal Court Order show that there were a total of 1,022 overlapping names or email addresses on his master list.”
“Through this finding it is clear that Ro Khanna and his campaign used stolen data to further his endless pursuit of being a Member of Congress,” stated Michael Beckendorf, Mike Honda For Congress Campaign Manager. “Instead of being upfront and transparent with voters Ro has continuously lied to cover up his wrongdoing. Just today his campaign has filed a motion to dismiss this lawsuit despite clear evidence of wrongdoing. This is another in a long line of examples of Ro’s Republican-like pattern of doing whatever it takes, regardless of the truth or the law, to attain public office.”
A Case Management Conference is scheduled with the Federal judge on November 17.