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March 19th, 2024 Len’s Political Note #629 Joe Kerr California 40
2024 General Election
We are on a search for Democrats who can flip Republican seats. Joe Kerr might be one.
It is not easy for a labor guy to get elected to public office. Joe Kerr, the Democratic candidate who emerged from the top two race for California’s 40th Congressional district has run unsuccessfully twice before. In 2020, he came in third in the top two non-partisan primary for a seat on the Orange County Board of Supervisors. In 2022, he came in third for a the top two non-partisan primary for a State Senate seat.
In 2024, he came in second after a bruising battle with another Democrat to gain 2nd place. Joe Kerr won that competition to be the candidate to defeat Congresswoman Young Kim in November. Joe Kerr’s labor connections were his base.
His labor ties were also a basis for attack. Take Vern Nelson’s opinion piece in the Orange County Register. How, Nelson asks, can Joe Kerr claim he “successfully passed 200 bills and initiatives” when he has never held public office?
Joe Kerr explains in his campaign website. A fire captain for Orange County, for 17 years he was president of the Orange County Professional Fire Fighters Association. He has also been a vice-president of the county Central Labor Council, and a vice president of the state Professional Fire Fighters. In those roles, he lobbied for pro-labor bills. He was not the only one. He was part of efforts that, as he says, 5 governors and 2 presidents signed into law.
Achieving those labor goals required labor unions to support those who would support them. Nelson complained: “Throughout his 17-year stint as president of the OC Firefighters Union, [Kerr] poured thousands of dollars into the campaigns of Republican politicians who were anti-choice, and anti-gay rights, as long as they voted to give firefighters higher wages, pensions, and benefits. Van Tran. Todd Spitzer. Ken Maddox. The list goes on. This is not a pro-choice record.”
Nelson also asked: “Who remembers Poseidon, the $1.5 billion desalination boondoggle Orange County was almost stuck with until the Coastal Commission thankfully put a stake in its heart last year? It would have raised all our water rates considerably, for the benefit of a Canadian hedge fund group. Meanwhile it would have been an environmental nightmare. But it would have provided a few temporary union construction jobs, and that’s enough for some people.”
Joe Kerr’s response is not directly to Nelson. He tells constituents how he will vote if he is elected to Congress. He begins by saying he would protect reproductive freedom, promising to fight to codify Roe v Wade and telling those who are interested that his son was conceived through IVF. He second priority is addressing climate change – tying that to his work by explaining that “one 100,000-acre wildfire produced more CO2 greenhouse gas emissions than 7 million cars running simultaneously and continuously for a year.”
Joe Kerr is running to defeat incumbent Young Kim. In 2022, she was elected with 57% of the vote. And that was in a year when Republicans were not running that strongly nationally. Born in South Korea, her family left the country, first for Guam, when she was 13. After she finished junior high school, they moved to Hawaii. After she finished high school, they moved to California. She went to USC where she got a BA in business.
Her husband lobbied for the Korean American Association. Among the politicians he found sympathetic was Republican State Senator Ed Royce. Young Kim went to work for him. When he was elected to Congress, she stayed in California serving as his community liaison.
She went on to get elected to the California Assembly and then to Congress. She has worked to seem a centrist. She voted for reauthorizing the Violence Against Women Act, to delay spending cuts in Medicare, and to remove Marjorie Taylor Green from committee assignments. She did not work hard enough. She voted against the Equality Act. This proposal would have prohibited discrimination based on gender identity and sexual orientation – amending both the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Fair Housing Act.
‘On her website, Young Kim has sections about health care and keeping us safe. She has nothing to say about abortion. She has nothing to say about gun safety,
She is opposed to abortion. The National Right to Life Committee gives her a 100% rating. Planned Parenthood acknowledges her centrist efforts and gives her a 12% rating. Gun owners of America rate her at 100%. In 2022, she was not one of the 14 Republicans that helped pass the only recent gun safety law – changing the process by which someone 18-21 could buy a gun and closing the boyfriend loophole to prevent domestic violence perpetrators from being able to purchase a gun. Would she support aid to Taiwan, Israel, and Ukraine if the leadership she supports ever brings that aid to a vote?
We could use Joe Kerr in Congress and a Democratic Congress. DONATE TO JOE KERR
California here we come
CA 03. Jessica Morse is the Democratic challenger for this skinny district that runs along a good portion of the California-Nevada border. She is not a professional fire fighter like Joe Kerr, but she was Deputy Secretary for Forest and Wildland Resilience at the Calfironia Natural Resources Agency. She organized the fight against the California wildfires and did a good job of it, She is running against Kevin Kiley – a bright young man who is, unfortunately, a Trump acolyte. He is the 26th most vulnerable Republican Congressman in the country according to Daily Kos. In the March 5 top two primary, Kiley led 55 to 43. On February 14, Kiley led in the financial race $2 Million to $660,000. DONATE TO JESSICA MORSE, See Len’s Political Note #612
CA 09. Josh Harder is the Democratic incumbent in this district east of San Francisco, north of Modesto, and south of Sacramento. The son of a family which, for generations, had peach orchards in the area, he passed up opportunities to become as truly wealthy as someone with a Stanford BA and a Harvard MBA can be so that he could commit himself to supporting this agricultural area. His opponent is Kevin Lincoln who brought religion to the mayoralty of Stockton. Oath.vote identifies donations to Josh Harder, at 5.5 on their 10 point leverage scale. Josh Harder led Kevin Lincoln 53-28 in the March 5 top two primary. On February 14, he led the financial race $2.8 Million to $225,000. DONATE TO JOSH HARDER. See Len’s political Note #615
CA 13 Adam Gray is the Democratic challenger in this north-south district east of San Jose and south of Stockton. It includes Merced and continues much farther south. The son of the owner of a dairy farm supply company, he is a former state assemblyman. He lost a race that was so close that the Incumbent, John Duarte, is the 2nd most vulnerable Republican incumbent in the country on Len’s list and the most vulnerable on Daily Kos’s list. Oath,vote rates the leverage in donating to Adam Gray as 9.3 on their 10 point scale. Any score 9 or above suggests a high value in donating to a candidate. Because Adam Gray and the incumbent were the only candidates in the top two primary, the two finalist positions were considered uncontested. In the money race, however, the incumbent led on February 14 with $1.5 Million. Adam Gray had $500,000. DONATE TO ADAM GRAY. Everyone should! See Len’s Political Note #586
CA 22. Rudy Salas is the Democratic challenger in this district that includes Bakersfield and parts north and northwest of that city. A former state senator, Rudy Salas was Bakersfield’s first Latino city councilor. He is running against an incumbent Republican, David Valadao, who is almost as vulnerable as John Duarte. Valadao is #7 on Len’s list of the country’s most vulnerable Republican incumbent Congressmen and #3 on Daily Kos’s list. OATH.vote rates the leverage in donating to Rudy Salas as 9.4 on their 10 point scale. In the money race, the incumbent had $1.3 Million to Rudy Salas’s $125,000 on February 14. DONATE TO RUDY SALAS. Everyone should! See Len’s Political Note #602.
CA 27 George Whitesides is the Democratic challenger in this district that is due east of Santa Barbara. It is an east-west district that includes Santa Clarita and Lancaster and reaches toward Lake Los Angeles. George Whitesides is he former CEO of Virgin Galactic and the former Executive Director of the National Space Society. He is challenging Mike Garcia, a former marine and former Raytheon executive. Garcia has been in several close races and is #19 on Len’s list of vulnerable Republicans and is tied for #7 on Daily Kos’s list. Perhaps because George Whitesides has resources of his own and has raised so much money on his own, OATH.vote rates the donation leverage to him as 5.1. In the money race, the incumbent Republican had $1.5 Million on February 14; George Whitesides had $2.5 Million. I would not discourage you from piling on and helping George Whitesides to flip this district. DONATE TO GEORGE WHITESIDES. See Len’s Political Note #608.
CA 40. Joe Kerr is the Democratic challenger in this district that begins in Mission Viejo in the south and almost reaches Pomona in the north. Joe Kerr is a firefighter and labor leader who is taking on incumbent Young Kim who does her best to impersonate a moderate Republican. She is #28 on Daily Kos’s list of vulnerable Republican Members of Congress. The incumbent is well ahead in the money race. As of February 14, she had $2.5 Million. Joe Kerr had $80,000 – having spent $1 Million to come in second in the top two primary. Help him make a dent in the incumbent’s financial lead. DONATE TO JOE KERR.
CA 41. Will Rollins is the challenger again in this east-west district that has Palm Springs at its eastern wing and Corona at is western wing. Will Rollins was a federal prosecutor who specialized in counter-terrorism and counterintelligence cases. He moved to Palm Springs to be comfortable as a gay man and, perhaps, to oppose the incumbent Ken Calvert who does work to overcome his reputation as an old-fashioned bigoted Republican. Daily Kos counts Calvert as tied for 19th among vulnerable Republicans. OATH.vote suggests there is reasonable leverage in donating to Will Rollins by giving him a score of 8.0. Will Rollins is certainly keeping the financial race competitive. As of February 14, the incumbent had $2.3 Million available; Will Rollins had $2.4 Million. Join the fray. DONATE TO WILL ROLLINES. See Len’s Political Note #588.
CA 47. David Min is defending a Democratic seat that runs along the coasts south of Long Beach and juts in to the university city Irvine. The incumbent, Katie Porter ran for the US Senate, but came in third in the top two primary. When Katie Porter was still running, this brainy protégé of Elilzabeth Warren was listed as #11 on Len’s list of vulnerable Democratic incumbents. With the seat open and Katie Porter no longer a central factor, Daily Kos listed the seat as 14th most vulnerable Democratic seat in the country. A law professor, with an MBA degree as well as a JD, David Min’s academic interest was banking. As a state senator, he proposed bills that ranged from ways to make children safer to limiting off shore oil drilling. His opponent is Scott Baugh, the former chair of the Republican Party. If David Min is going to contest this race successfully, he will need to raise money. As of February 14, he had $225,000. Baugh had $1.7 Million.
CA 49. Mike Levin is the incumbent of this district which is along the coast south of CA 47 and includes San Clemente, Oceanside, and Solana Beach. He may be the incumbent, but he has never been a comfortable one. According to Len’s list and Daily Kos’s list, he is the 25th most vulnerable Democrat. OATH.vote sees a donation to him as having a moderate impact, ranking him at 5.3. His opponent is a businessman, Matt Gunderson. He wants to have a candid conversation about middle class issues. The DCCC says that means he supports Trump, opposes abortion, and wants to cut social security. Mike Levin appears to be prepared for the conversation with resources. He had $1.2 Million available on February 14 while Gunderson had $200,000. If you are interested, DONATE TO MIKE LEVIN. See Len’s Political Note #592.
CA 45. We do not yet know which Democrat, Attorney Derek Tran or City Councilwoman Kim Bernice Nguyen-Penaloza will face Incumbent Republic Michelle Park Steel. When we know, there will be a Political Note.
