Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
Democrat Ro Khanna has re-launched a campaign to run for the U.S. House of Representatives, positioning himself as the tech-savvy, youth-friendly, grass-roots candidate. The 38-year-old lost last year’s race to Honda — who is now serving his eighth House term — by 3.6 percentage points after a long and often ugly campaign in which the candidates seemed to spend more time nitpicking each other’s faults than debating policy issues, the San Jose Mercury News reported.
Back in 2004, Khanna lost the Democratic primary to then-Rep. Tom Lantos. Now he’s trying for the second time to oust Rep. Mike Honda from his longtime seat in the17th Congressional District, which includes Cupertino, Sunnyvale, Milpitas and part of San Jose in Santa Clara County and the cities of Fremont and Newark in Alameda County.
Khanna, a Yale Law School graduate who served as deputy assistant secretary of Commerce under Obama, promised voters fresh ideas that he said they could not get from Honda, 73. “I am running to represent this community in Congress,” Khanna said. “I was raised to believe in the American Dream. My parents immigrated to the United States so that my brother and I could have a shot at it through a good education and hard work,” he told a crowd of over 200 people. “What’s heartbreaking is that today, for the first time, there’s an anxiety about whether that American Dream will exist for the next generation. It’s an anxiety driven by economics. We’re earning less, but working more. The cost of living, especially here in the Bay Area, is through the roof,” he said.
During the official announcement of his intention to May 30, Khanna vowed that he would not take any money from lobbyists or PACs. “It’s going to be tougher,” he admitted, “but I am confident we will have the resources to get the job done.” Khanna, who has raised $801,000 in the first quarter this year, spent some $4.4 million to Honda’s $3.4 million in last year’s race.
To further help him oust Honda, the former Obama administration official has hired a team of prominent campaign operatives. Democratic consultant Joe Trippi, who helped steer Gov. Jerry Brown back to the state’s top elected post in 2010, has been hired as lead consultant, while Los Angeles-based consultant John Shallman will oversee direct mail efforts and serve as senior advisor.
Honda, who is serving his second term in Congress, said through a campaign spokesman last week that he welcomed another bout with Khanna, the San Jose Mercury News reported. Honda has held the 17th District seat since 2000 and has previously served in the state Assembly and the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors.
A long-time resident of Fremont, Khanna worked at the Silicon Valley law firm of Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, where he represented high technology companies in intellectual property cases. He is also a visiting lecturer in the Department of Economics at Stanford University and an Adjunct Professor at Santa Clara Law School. Gov. Brown appointed Khanna to the California Workforce Development Board for the State of California, where he serves as chair for the Advanced Manufacturing Committee. He also served on the Board of Directors of Planned Parenthood Mar Monte as well as tutoring local high school students in his spare time.
During his tenure as the Deputy Assistant Secretary at the U.S. Department of Commerce, Khanna traveled the country meeting with American manufacturers to learn how Washington could help promote trade and the jobs it creates. He broke new ground when he organized clean technology trade missions and expanded the Green Embassy program, which allows American clean technology firms to showcase their products in our embassies overseas. He also served on the White House Business Council, where he worked with both business and labor for policies that promote U.S. economic growth.
After leaving the Commerce Department, Khanna wrote “Entrepreneurial Nation: Why Manufacturing is Still Key to America’s Future,” a book on the state of American manufacturing and how to keep it competitive in the global economy.
Born in Philadelphia in 1976, Khanna graduated Phi Beta Kappa with a B.A. in economics from the University of Chicago, and received a law degree from Yale University. He is currently vice president for Strategic Initiatives at Smart Utility Systems, energy efficiency company which produces software for water conservation and for reducing electricity consumption.
The post Ro Khanna Launches Second Attempt For Congress From California District 17 appeared first on News India Times.