In the Headlines

Bera leads Lungren in favorability ranking

In one of the closest and hotly contested congressional races this election cycle, Democratic challenger Dr. Ami Bera is tied with his Republican opponent, Congressman Dan Lungren. 

In a poll released today in the political publication The Hill, the survey showed the two men tied at 47 percent. However when the pollsters read positive statements about both candidates, Bera was viewed more favorable than Lungren by five percent.

Congressional candidate and Elk Grove resident Dr. Ami Bera was critical of his own party. But he repeated during a recent interview that he is the candidate to foster communication and legislation between Democrats and Republicans in Congress. 

The Democrat lost to U.S. Rep. Dan Lungren (R-Gold River) in 2010 and has been working since then with an eye on the rematch that he said he will win in November. Bera said many incumbents will lose their seats, which is why Lungren is worried.

“This is going to be a very close race. Most people are talking about this being the most competitive race in California,” Bera said. “This race is going to be about moving this country forward, and I think Dan Lungren and I have two very different visions of how we move this country forward.”

The National Journal has included 10 California districts in its new ranking of congressional seats most likely to change partisan control in the November election.

The rematch between Republican Rep. Dan Lungren and Democrat Ami Bera in East Sacramento County's 7th Congressional District was ranked the most competitive California seat, coming in 15th out of 75 hot races on the Washington, D.C.-based publication's list. 

If California is the most important target for congressional Democrats this cycle, then Ami Bera, running against GOP Rep. Dan Lungren in the 7th District, is the point of his party's spear.

Bera has another stellar fundraising quarter to report this week: His campaign raised over $487,000 in the second quarter and has $1.44 million on-hand for the general election rematch against Lungren. Even more impressive, 2,000 second-quarter donors were new, having not previously contributed.

President Barack Obama’s re-election campaign is likely to have more money than any presidential campaign in history. Republican Mitt Romney’s campaign, when you factor in the super-PACs supporting him, could have even more money than that. Both candidates will, in other words, have more than enough money to get out their message, attack their opponent and support their ground game. Even as they’re spending all this money on paid media, the campaigns will receive an almost infinite amount of free media from newspapers, television, magazines and blogs that will spend the next seven months doing nothing but covering the presidential campaign.

Yet, at the presidential level, money isn’t everything. In fact, sometimes it’s not even the main thing. Note that Rick Santorum, who was outspent many times over by Romney, nevertheless bested him in a number of Republican primaries.

The messages in the phone calls and mail pieces targeting voters in one of the Sacramento region's most competitive congressional races vary, but the subject is the same: the future of Medicare.

The national debate over the federal health care program for seniors is expected to be a top issue in elections across the country. The efforts already are fierce in the 7th Congressional District, a high-stakes rematch between Rep. Dan Lungren, R-Gold River, and Elk Grove Democrat Ami Bera.

The issue is fueling attacks and efforts to shore up support from outside groups looking to influence voters in the east Sacramento County swing district.

"Even if Dan Lungren and Ami Bera made a mutual pledge not to utter the word Medicare … it would still be a major issue in the campaign," said Dan Schnur, a former GOP strategist who serves as director of University of Southern California's Jesse M. Unruh Institute of Politics.

Ami Bera, MD

Last week, Congressman Darrell Issa of California chose to review whether it was appropriate for President Barack Obama's administration to mandate that insurance companies cover oral contraception. This week, Sen. Roy Blunt of Missouri introduced legislation that allows any insurance company or any employer to decide what it wants to offer in terms of health insurance coverage. And Rep. Dan Lungren argued that companies had the first amendment right to deny their employees access to these medical services.

My frustration is that none of the above-mentioned individuals has ever gone to medical school. They have never sat with a patient and her family and helped navigate healthcare decisions that may have life and death implications. In short, why are individuals with no healthcare expertise about to decide how a doctor takes care of their patients?

Competitive campaign reflects California's changing demographics, draws national attention.

By Felicia Mello Email the author February 23, 2012 

You want to understand the dynamics at play in this year's Congressional races, take a look at Elk Grove. At least, that's what reporters and analysts nationwide are doing. 

The matchup between physician Ami Bera, a Democrat, and Republican Rep. Dan Lungren to represent California's newly-created Seventh District has become a hot topic in political circles, including this week in The Wall Street Journal.

ELK GROVE, Calif.—Only one congressional seat in California changed parties in the past decade. Now, an independent redistricting process has turned the Golden State into a battleground where Democrats hope to pick up House seats this fall.

That's apparent in the Seventh District, which includes this city of 153,000 located 17 miles from Sacramento. The Seventh is now seen by political experts as one of the nation's most competitive.

On a recent Saturday, Ami Bera, an Indian-American and a Democrat who has never held elected office, knocked on doors here to seek support for his bid for Congress against Republican Rep. Dan Lungren. A big name in California politics since he won his first congressional race in 1978, Mr. Lungren beat Mr. Bera by seven percentage points in 2010.

By Felicia Mello

We got an email late last week from Janine Bera, wife of Ami Bera, the Elk Grove doctor and Democrat who's running against U.S. Rep. Dan Lungren in the 3rd Congressional District.

In the message—presumably sent to women on the Bera campaign's email list—Mrs. Bera, who is also a physician, expressed her outrage at the hearings on birth control coverage that unfolded Thursday on Capitol Hill. Republicans and religious leaders are protesting President Obama's plan to require that health insurance companies provide free contraceptives to women. It's an issue affecting most women of childbearing age who enjoy sex but don't plan to have children in the near future—which is to say, a whole lot of women.

The group tasked with getting Republicans elected to the House of Representatives -- and keeping them there -- added 10 party members to its incumbent protection program this week, a development that Democrats hailed as a nod from the other side that the lower chamber is in play.

The National Republican Congressional Committee now has 30 incumbents enrolled in its Patriot Program, which establishes benchmarks for the most vulnerable incumbents and provides the financial support to help get them there.

Democrats need a net gain of 25 seats to reclaim control of the House, and have an ambitious and highly calculated plan to reach that number. Most analysts characterize the goal as an uphill climb, but Democrats see the Republicans’ new list as an admission that it is doable.

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...