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Voters in the Central Valley will cast their ballots Tuesday in a special election to fill the congressional seat left vacant when Republican Rep. Devin Nunes resigned in January to head Donald Trumps new social media company.

The top candidate will represent the old 22nd Congressional District, which covers a majority of Fresno County and portions of Tulare County, through early January 2023.

Its a one-time seat for somebody to win and be in Congress for a very short period of time, said Paul Mitchell, a Democratic redistricting expert.

Here are five things to know about the race:

Why is this election happening?

Nunes abrupt retirement triggered a costly game of musical chairs in the San Joaquin Valley. It occurred shortly after the once-every-decade redrawing of congressional district lines. Had Nunes not stepped down, he would have faced reelection in a district more Democratic than the strongly Republican ones he had represented for nearly two decades. Or, because members of Congress are not required to live in their districts, Nunes could have run in another district against a fellow GOP incumbent.

Gov. Gavin Newsom called for a special election on April 5 to fill the remainder of Nunes term.

The special election is expected to cost Fresno and Tulare counties taxpayers between $1.4 million and $1.6 million, according to the Fresno County Registrar of Voters and the Sun-Gazette newspaper.

Who is Nunes?

Nunes was first elected to Congress in 2002. The son of a longtime dairy farm family, Nunes has loudly denounced efforts to fight climate change and environmental regulations that he claimed harmed the regions agriculture industry.

Locals appreciated his efforts to increase water supplies for farmers, though his proposals were often stymied in the nations capital. Nunes took action to aid the drought-stricken. When hundreds of wells ran dry in East Porterville, the then-congressman helped arrange water deliveries. Still, even some of his allies worried that his focus on valley issues was diverted by his next role: Nunes became one of Trumps most loyal and fierce defenders, especially during the presidents two impeachments. He was the focus of nationwide scorn from Democrats.

Nunes, 48, also drew headlines for several lawsuits he filed in an attempt to quash criticism, notably an unsuccessful 2019 effort against Twitter and a Republican strategist over parody accounts named @DevinNunesMom and @DevinCow. He said the accounts defamed him, costing him political support in his 2018 reelection.

Who wants to replace him?

Four Republicans and two Democrats have been courting voters.

Political analysts say Republican Connie Conway, a former state legislative leader, has emerged as the front-runner. Elizabeth Heng, a GOP candidate from Fresno who has also received attention in the race, is the daughter of Chinese and Cambodian immigrants who fled the Khmer Rouge. After graduate school, she started an encrypted internet browser, and in 2018 unsuccessfully ran against Rep. Jim Costa (D-Fresno).

Connie has the best chance because people know her name, said Amanda Renteria, a Democratic Central Valley native who unsuccessfully ran for Congress and governor. People will remember Elizabeth Heng just because she went against Costa not too long ago. Shes sort of brought a younger, newer audience.

Conway entered the race late and raised $82,893 from January to March 16, according to the Federal Election Commission. The 71-year-old has described herself as a caretaker for the seat with no plans to seek reelection.

If there was a place to go on, I think Congressman Nunes probably would have taken that opportunity and we wouldnt be having this special election, she said. But then I have to even ask myself, Would I seek it even if there was? and at this point in my life, it appealed to me to just finish this job.

When Heng first ran for Congress in 2018, she said constituents made it clear that water, immigration and education were among the biggest issues facing the valley.

Were still talking about the same issues. Theyre just much, much worse, said Heng, 37. We need the next generation to step up, speak out and fight for our future.

Heng has raised more money than any other candidate, collecting $214,900 through March 16, according to the FEC. Eric Garcia, a Democrat from Clovis and a former Marine, was second, with $205,715.

Garcia, 34, said he always intended to run against Nunes, and his resignation didnt change his plan.

I went forward with it so I could finally give our district, before it disappears the way it is now, actual representation as opposed to the lack thereof when Devin was in the seat for over 10-plus years, he said.

Other candidates on the ballot are Republican business owners Michael Maher, 38, and Matt Stoll, 44, and Democratic water resource manager Lourin Hubbard, 33.

Why is this an unusual election?

Thats because the 22nd Congressional District, as currently constituted, will no longer exist after this year.

Under new district maps, Nunes Republican voter base got pushed into surrounding districts. Nearly half of Nunes district was combined with about half of Costas district to create the new 21st Congressional District. Costa, a Fresno native, is running for reelection in this district.

A small part of Nunes district was placed into the new 22nd District, which encompasses a big chunk of Kern County and portions of Tulare and Kings counties. Incumbent Rep. David Valadao (R-Hanford) announced his run for reelection in this district.

What happens next?

Voters can mail in their ballots or show up in person at voting centers on April 5.

If a candidate doesnt win a majority of votes, the top two candidates will move onto the June 7 election, the same day as statewide primary elections. This means candidates who run to fill Nunes seat could also find themselves campaigning for another congressional district simultaneously.

Maher, Stoll and Garcia have all been certified to run against Costa in the new 21st District, according to the secretary of states office.

Talk about a confusing ballot, Conway said. It would be my hope that its cut and dry on April 5, but its a big ask with six candidates.

Times staff writers Seema Mehta and Jennifer Haberkorn contributed to this report.

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Democrats loved hating on Nunes. Now there's a race to replace him - Los Angeles Times

CHICAGO, April 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- In the final week of Women's History Month, Democrats in the Illinois House took a stand for women across the state with the passage of House Bill 1464 codifying the state's unwavering support for access to reproductive health and a woman's right to choose.

Illinois will remain a safe haven for reproductive rights.

States across the country including neighboring states of Missouri, Wisconsin, and Ohio are passing bans on women's rights and penalizing physicians for performing and/or assisting with abortions. Democrats made it clear that Illinois will always protect women's rights to choose. Illinois will remain a safe haven for reproductive rights. House Republicans voted no.

"I think it's pretty clear who stands with women in this state," said House Speaker Emanuel 'Chris' Welch, appalled by the number of Republican votes to deny these protections, "Who will stand with women? Democrats stand for women in this state."

The Speaker went on to share that it is more important than ever that Illinois remains a safe haven standing strong for women's reproductive rights.

Women's rights groups across Illinois spoke up in support of the bill. ACLU Executive Director, Colleen Connel, says a woman's right to choose is under attack across the country and Illinois has worked to make reproductive healthcare a fundamental right.

"The Illinois House of Representatives today reaffirmed that our state will not let others undermine this commitment," she said. "That message is welcome for people in Illinois and those in other states who need to access health care, including abortion care."

According to a statehouse press release, House Democrats also voted for House Resolution 789 to raise awareness of the importance of reproductive rights and promote Illinois as a role model for other states as they strive toward full reproductive justice. They voted for House Resolution 790 reaffirming the support of Roe v. Wade. They also passed House Resolution 94 which opposes efforts by extremists to defund Planned Parenthood.

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/democrats-in-the-illinois-house-take-a-stand-for-womens-reproductive-rights-301516228.html

SOURCE Democrats for the Illinois House

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Democrats in the Illinois House Take a Stand for Women's Reproductive Rights - Longview News-Journal

The commission documents said Perkins Coie where a partner at the time, Marc Elias, was representing the Clinton campaign paid Fusion GPS slightly more than $1 million in 2016, and the law firm was in turn paid $175,000 by the campaign and about $850,000 by the party during six weeks in July and August 2016. Campaign spending disclosure reports described most of those payments to Perkins Coie as having been for legal services and legal and compliance consulting.

The Washington Examiner earlier reported on the commissions letter to Mr. Backer.

The Steele dossier was a set of reports written by Christopher Steele, a former British intelligence agent whose research firm was a subcontractor that Fusion GPS hired to look into Mr. Trumps purported links to Russia. The reports cited unnamed sources who claimed that there was a well-developed conspiracy of coordination between the Trump campaign and Russia and that Russia had a blackmail tape of Mr. Trump with prostitutes.

In addition to giving his reports to Perkins Coie, Mr. Steele shared some with the F.B.I. and reporters. The F.B.I. which had opened its investigation into Russias election interference operation and links to the Trump campaign on other grounds used part of the dossier in applications to wiretap a Trump associate. BuzzFeed published the dossier in January 2017, heightening suspicion about Mr. Trump and Russia.

It has become clear that the dossiers sourcing was thin. No corroborating evidence emerged in the intervening years to support many of its claims, such as the purported sex tape, and investigators determined that one key allegation that a lawyer for Mr. Trump, Michael D. Cohen, had met with Russian officials in Prague during the campaign was false.

The primary source of information in the dossier was Igor Danchenko, a researcher hired by Mr. Steele to canvass for information about Mr. Trump and Russia from people he knew, including in Europe and Russia.

Mr. Danchenko told the F.B.I. in 2017 that he thought the tenor of the dossier was more conclusive than was justified. He portrayed the story of the blackmail tape as speculation that he was unable to confirm; a key source had called him without identifying himself, he said, adding that he had guessed at the sources identity.

Last year, the Trump-era special counsel investigating the Russia inquiry, John H. Durham, indicted Mr. Danchenko on charges that he lied to the F.B.I. about some of his sources.

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Democrats Agree to Pay $113,000 Over Campaign Spending Inquiry - The New York Times

Theres an old saying, usually attributed to Joseph Heller: Sometimes you have to rise above principle and do whats right. President Joe Biden and the Democrats should heed that advice.

A new NBC poll out this week found that a whopping 75 percent of voters are more likely to support a candidate who wants to fully fund the police. The second biggest finding? That 69 percent prefer a candidate who supports expanding domestic oil and natural gas production. Embracing these issues would not only be the right thing for Democrats to do, it would also be the smart thing to do.

Democrats are already facing stiff winds in Novembers midterm elections. All the political signals are screaming: Democrats must move to the center, both to mitigate their losses in 2022 and to keep alive their hopes of retaining the presidency in 2024 and building political power thereafter, writes Ruy Teixeira, a left-leaning author and political scientist.

In fairness, Biden during his State of the Union address loudly proclaimed his intention to Fund the police, and his new budget does just that (by taxing billionaires). But this needed to be hammered home two-and-a-half years ago, when The New York Times was running opinion pieces by progressives titled, Yes, We Mean Literally Abolish The Police.

Changing perceptions takes time, and issues like funding the police are about more than just literally funding the police. Dig deeper, and youll find attitudes about law and orderand fears about violence and chaos. In this regard, the writing has been on the wall for eons. Voters who are looking for pro-police (and pro-energy) candidates are more likely to find that in the Republican Party.

So why focus so much on topics swing voters and average Americans dont prioritize? In recent years, it has become accepted that the way to win is by hyping base turnout (which, based on the enthusiasm gap, isnt working anyway). But, according to a recent Pew Research survey, Democratic voters are much more interested in topics like climate change, racial equity, and COVID-19 than the general public.

Its unclear how this penchant for base-pandering started. Maybe it was Karl Roves tacit admission that base turnout, not persuasion, was the only way to re-elect George W. Bush in 2004. Maybe it was the rise of talk radio, cable news, or Twitter, which can make money or drive the discussion without that pesky business of having to persuade 50 percent (plus one) of the public. Perhaps its just a generational shift.

It has been clear since at least 2016 that this progressive cavalry was not soon going to ride to the rescue. Indeed, Biden won the 2020 election by assembling a very different Biden coalition.

For most of my lifetime, the clich held that pragmatic (if cynical) politicians and party insiders always wanted to run poll-tested, focus-grouped campaigns that frequently left the base feeling unsatisfied. But in recent years, an ethos has emerged on both sides of the aisle that prioritized purity and casts extreme views as authentic, while labeling centrism as tantamount to selling out.

Could this self-defeating Gen-X attitude be the primary contribution my generation makes to politics? If so, Dems may well find out that reality does indeed bite.

Whatever the reason, too many of the young-ish Democrats who now call the shots on Democratic campaigns want to please the cool kids on Twitter instead of the much more numerous hoi polloi. In doing so, they alienate working-class voters, who are more culturally conservative and less online. But at least they get to look cool to their progressive friends.

In a sense, this reminds me of CBSs rural purge of the 1970s, wherein the Tiffany network canceled rural-themed shows, despite the fact that they were winning in the ratings. The theory is that the decision-makers were more interested in appearing hip than in winning (a similar theory explains why Wilt Chamberlain refused to shoot free throws underhanded).

Of course, none of this would have mattered had the fabled coalition of the ascendanta supposed emerging and quasi-permanent Democratic majority of Hispanics and other minority groupsnot failed to emerge as an electoral behemoth. This coalition was supposed to offset the working-class attrition by voting in lockstep with their college-educated, progressive thought leaders.

Of course, it has been clear since at least 2016 that this progressive cavalry was not going to ride to the rescue any time soon. Indeed, Biden won the 2020 election by assembling a very different Biden coalition. Upon being sworn-in, he promptly forgot the lesson.

Im not implying that progressives could magically fix all their political problems by simply toning down their radical rhetoric, championing oil exploration, and ignoring the Squad. Multiple factors have conspired to all but guarantee that 2022 will be a bad year for Dems. The question now is, how bad? And what about 2024?

Again, to anyone looking at the shitshow that is the GOP, such pessimism on Dems electoral hopes might sound confusing. But to average Americans, worries about preserving liberal democracy may seem esoteric when compared with more pressing fears about increased street violence, rising gas and grocery prices (according to Quinnipiac, inflation is the top issue), and worries about the cultural values taught to their kids in school.

Despite all the chaos on the rightattempted coups, white nationalist rallies, cocaine-fuelled orgies (according to Madison Cawthorn, before he walked it back in bizarre fashion)Democrats are on the wrong side of too many issues that many Americans prioritize. Indeed, according to Kevin Drum, the liberal journalist formerly with Washington Monthly and Mother Jones, Since roughly the year 2000, according to survey data, Democrats have moved significantly to the left on most hot button social issues [such as immigration, guns, taxes, abortionand even religion] while Republicans have moved only slightly right.

In a sane world, Democrats would look at the polls and panic. If you were running a business, this sort of feedback would demand serious and aggressive efforts to rebrand and reassess everythingfrom your business model to your public relations efforts. Imagine the changes that might manifest if Democrats viewed this in urgent terms.

Looking at the NBC polling data, conservative writer Jonah Goldberg observes that Joe Manchin is the least popular Democrat among Democratic Party activists and the base but [he is] the Democrat with the most popular positions in the country. Goldberg then concludes, A party that cared about winning would think seriously about running him for president.

Here in the real world, Manchin is despised by the left, despite playing an instrumental role in Bidens past (and future) victories, including the passage of the bipartisan infrastructure bill, as well as the likely confirmation of a Supreme Court Justice nominee. Im not trying to glorify Manchin; Im simply pointing out how disconnected Democratic politics is from mainstream public opinion.

Democrats currently have a wildly unpopular and aging president. His heir apparent, Vice President Kamala Harris, does not yet appear to be ready for primetime. Meanwhile, Biden and Harris are all that separates us from another term for Donald Trumpwhich many on the left view as an existential threat to the country. And yet, despite the context and the stakes involved, everyone knows that Manchin (and anyone remotely in his philosophical orbit) would have ZERO chance of winning the Democratic nomination.

Since nominating someone like Manchin will never happen, Democrats will have to settle for half measures. To win back the publics trust, Joe Biden should push back on the left and govern the way he campaigned. Meanwhile, the Democratic Party and their accomplices in the media should pump the brakes on their efforts to radically transform American life.

A rational party would do this. But to paraphrase Meat Loaf, progressives would do almost anything to stop Trump from getting a second term and ending American Democracy as they know it. But they wont. Do. That.

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Democrats Keep Confusing Twitter for the Real World - The Daily Beast

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As the Biden administration moves to end Title 42, the GOP led by Trump is prepared to once again weaponize immigration to rile up their base. Julin Castro joined American Voices with Alicia Menendez to discuss the decision to lift Title 42 and how Democrats need to ramp up their messaging on immigration to combat Republican talking points on the border.April 4, 2022

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