In the Headlines

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, launching its bid to win back the House majority, has unveiled its list of top 2012 recruits.

DCCC Chairman Steve Israel announced 18 candidates on Wednesday who are being inducted into the House Democratic campaign arm’s “Red to Blue” program, which aims to provide support to top candidates across the country.

The committee is placing a heavy emphasis on Democrats looking to unseat GOP freshmen, tapping 10 candidates – including Colorado House Minority Leader Sal Pace, former Orlando Police Chief Val Demings and Virginia venture capitalist Paul Hirschbiel — who are running against Republicans swept into Congress in the 2010 midterm wave.

The Democrat leading his party's effort to retake control of the House of Representatives is cautiously optimistic the November elections will make John Boehner a one-term House speaker, telling reporters Wednesday that "we are nipping at (Republican) heels and we have the potential to overtake them over the next nine months."

Democrats do not have the 25 seats needed to take control of the House in November locked in yet, but New York Rep. Steve Israel, who heads the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, said that his candidates are making steady progress with fewer than 300 days until the election.

WASHINGTON – Democratic strategists on Wednesday put more serious muscle behind two Central Valley congressional challengers.

Now, get ready for the advertising deluge.

In a move that opens up campaign pocketbooks, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee elevated Dr. Ami Bera of Sacramento County and former astronaut Jose Hernandez of San Joaquin County to the highest priority in the party's bid to reclaim the House.

Three California candidates will be included in the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee’s “Red to Blue” effort to win back the House majority this fall, party campaign leaders announced Wednesday.

Mark Takano, a teacher and elected board member of the Riverside Community College District, is running in the new, open 41st Congressional District, while physician Ami Bera will reprise his challenge to Rep. Dan Lungren (R-Gold River) in the newly drawn 7th District and NASA astronaut Jose Hernandez will take on Rep. Jeff Denham (R-Atwater) in the newly drawn 10th District.

Glaringly absent from the current debate about Medicare is the doctor's perspective. As a physician who has worked at every level of the health care system and as a candidate for Congress, I bring a unique perspective to the Medicare discussion. Twenty years ago, as I graduated from medical school, I recited the modern Hippocratic Oath, a pledge recited by generations of doctors. Central to this pledge are the three sacred tenets of medicine – benevolence: to do good; non-malfeasance: to do no harm; patient autonomy: the right of patients to have a choice in their medical decisions.

Elk Grove Democrat Ami Bera is gearing up for a rematch against Republican Rep. Dan Lungren in the 3rd Congressional District, sending a fundraising pitch to could-be supporters for a 2012 bid.

"After a period of honest reflection and consultation with my family and members of the community, I have decided to run again for Congress in 2012," Bera wrote in an e-mail sent today to supporters.

The November elections sent a decisive message to our elected officials--or at least it should have. Here's what I heard Americans saying: we are frustrated with a government that seems wholly disconnected from the challenges middle class families face. We want our leadership to focus on rebuilding an economy that creates jobs now, and opportunity for future generations. We expect you--our government--to do what We the People are doing in these challenging times: tightening our belt, cutting the extras and prioritizing the things that really matter. Our tax dollars aren't a no-limit credit card...

Nearly two years ago, my family, friends, supporters and I began an improbable journey. We traveled through the district and across the state. We met passionate individuals who gave voice to the concerns felt by many Americans and detailed the hopes of their families, their communities, and the 3rd Congressional District.

Many of you joined us through this journey. While three months have passed since the election, I am still humbled and inspired by your hard work, dedication, and commitment to the causes you care about. Even though we did not get the results we had hoped for on Election Night, the importance of your role in the first chapter of our journey is not diminished.

And now, the journey continues. After a period of honest reflection and consultation with my family and members of the community, I have decided to run again for Congress in 2012.

I am running again because the issues we care about are no less important today than they were last November. You deserve a representative who will fight to:

Create good jobs and secure America’s place as the world’s economic leader;

Bring the needed expertise to continue to improve access to health care—rather than simply saying “no” to progress;

Build an education system that truly prepares future generations to compete in an innovation-driven and interconnected global economy.

Ensure that the opportunity to achieve the American Dream is available to all who work hard.

In short, you deserve a representative who will fight for you.

I learned many valuable lessons from our 2010 campaign, the most important of which is that there is no substitute for the might of an impassioned group of citizens working together for a better future.

And so, I ask for your help to carry on our work. Together we will continue this improbable journey toward a new chapter of new leadership for our community. Together we will build a better future for all of our children and grandchildren. Together we will race towards victory in 2012.

Be well,

Dr. Ami Bera

Thank you. From day one of our improbable journey, this campaign has been about you. Because of you, we ran an extraordinary campaign, and together, we elevated the critical concerns and aspirations of thousands of Californians, just like you. 

I am proud of the campaign we've run, and you should be too.  The story of our campaign is the story of a diverse, passionate coalition of Californians who worked together tirelessly, striving to create that more perfect Union.

So thank you. Thank you for your support, your hard work, and your service. We may not have received the outcome we wanted, but I promise you that I will continue to fight with you to heal our broken government, to restore an ethic of service to our politics, and guarantee the promise of opportunity for every American.

I hope you'll continue to stay in touch. Check our website for periodic updates. Together, we'll continue our fight to ensure every American has the opportunity to achieve their full potential.

Be well,

Dr. Ami Bera

Most California Congressional incumbents seem pretty safe, but three seem to have real battles on their hands.

At best, Lungren is loose with the facts, at worse, he’s trying to pull the wool over the eyes of the voters of CA-3.

But on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives, around that same time, Rep. Dan Lungren said of Citizens United: “This is a great day, Mr. Speaker. This is a great day,” and added that the “Supreme Court finally got it right.”

Of course, Lungren has been on the receiving end of about $15,000 in contributions from Citizen United, the conservative 501(c)(4) group that brought and won the lawsuit tossing out our already weak campaign-finance laws.

Ami Bera knows he’s paving the way for the next wave of Indian American candidates: "That’s a privilege to be in a position to inspire a generation. They should dream they can be congressmen. They should dream they can be senators."

Quarter after quarter after quarter Bera has out-raised Lungren, so much so that Karl Rove saw fit for his shadowy PAC to invest over $600,000 into ads for Lungren. Now he has been caught outright lying to seniors about his desire to privatize Social Security and Dr. Bera is not letting off the hook.

Bera, who pollsters say is one of the few Democrats in the nation with a chance of unseating an incumbent Republican next week, went on the attack repeatedly. On several occasions, he accused Lungren of practicing "deceit and deception," for example by advocating Social Security privatization and then denying it, or by claiming he supports small businesses but pushing policies that favor large corporations.

Lungren lies about his support for privatizing Social Security.

Chairing the committee that writes campaign finance law would be a coup for a deregulation-hawk like Lungren. If Lungren wins re-election, secretive groups and operatives like Karl Rove will have even less trouble turning 2012 into another record year for campaign fundraising.

He credits his army of 3,300 campaign volunteers, who he says have called more than 400,000 voters, for putting the Republican district in play.

"I'd poke your head out there and look at the level of enthusiasm," he said from his campaign office in Carmichael, pointing to the roughly 30 volunteers calling voters in the next room. "Then take a drive over to Dan Lungren's, or the Republicans' campaign office. There's no enthusiasm gap when you look at that."