All politics is local” is a saying politicians running for office this year hope comes true as never before. Two controversial candidates, Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican Donald Trump, are vying for the White House on a rocky road that’s down to the wire. For Senate and House candidates, including the six Indian-American Democrats, the hope is that their year of grass-roots campaigning and the focus on local issues will determine their victory.
Kamala Harris running for Senate from California is poised to win according to polls, and four of the five running for the House of Representatives have a good chance to get elected. But history will be made even if just two of them ultimately win.
The election of Kamala Harris would mark a slew of historic breakthroughs for Indian Americans: the first to enter the Senate and the first woman to be in Congress.
Two other Californians have more difficult races – Rep. Ami Bera from District 7, is fighting his third race for re-election, though this might be an easier win than the previous ones; and Ro Khanna in District 17, covering Silicon Valley, is predicted to be close to defeating veteran Democratic incumbent Mike Honda.
Washington State Senator Pramila Jayapal appears to be way ahead of her rival in her race for the U.S. House from District 7. And Raja Krishnamoorthi from District 8 in Illinois is predicted to win handily in a heavily Democratic leaning district. The fate of Peter Jacob, running from New Jersey’s District 7, is very much up in the air as he tries to oust incumbent Republican Leonard Lance.
Harris, Khanna and Jayapal are up against fellow Democrats because their states hold open primaries and caucuses respectively where the top two vote-getters face off.
Kamala Harris
A Public Policy Institute of California poll carried out between Oct. 14-23, shows California Attorney General Harris leading Rep. Loretta Sanchez by 22 points (42 percent over 20 percent; another 20 percent remain undecided and 18 percent volunteering that they will not vote). Harris also led Sanchez in the September, July, and May PPIC surveys. When one excludes the 18 percent of likely voters who say they will not vote for either candidate, Harris leads by 27 points (51% to 24%).
She also has majority support among Democrats (56 percent) and leads by 21 points among independents (38 percent to 17 percent).
“In this US Senate race between two Democrats, Attorney General Kamala Harris has built a two-to-one lead over Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez, with more than half of Republicans continuing to say they won’t vote or are undecided about how they will vote,” noted Mark Baldassare, the president and CEO of PPIC.
Harris, whose mother is Indian and father is West Indian of African descent, wears two ethnic hats and would also be the second woman of
African descent ever elected to Senate, and the third African American in the current Senate.
Ami Bera
Baldassare also noted the lagging enthusiasm about voting among Republicans could have “far-reaching implications” for California’s turnout and election outcomes.” And that could bode well for Bera who is running against Sacramento County Sheriff Scott Jones, a Republican, in a district split between Democrats and Republicans.
Bera won his 2014 election by a margin of just 1,475 votes winning 50.4 percent to his opponent’s 49.6 percent. Bera’s relatively independent streak in Congress compared to many other Democrats could be attributed to this narrow win. According to Ballotpedia, a non-partisan candidate tracking website, Bera’s voting ranking by different organizations show he “may break with the Democratic Party line more than his fellow members.”
A Nov. 2 rating by the non-partisan Cook Political Report, gave Bera an “even” chance of winning in what it described as a district that “leaned” Democratic.
The PPIC poll also shows that most of those likely to vote (55 percent), prefer Democratic control of Congress, a finding that could favor Bera. The President recently released a video endorsing Bera. Support for Clinton may help Bera as well.
District 7 is billed as one of the most expensive races in the country, and among the toughest. Add to that Bera’s additional image problem when his 81-year old father was recently tried, convicted and sentenced for illegal campaign finance activities during his son’s previous races. But the Congressman appears to have overcome those. Just two weeks or so before Nov. 8, Bera hit back with an ad campaign against Jones following disclosures about alleged sexual misconduct by his opponent 13 years ago with a deputy in his force.
In the June primary, Bera beat Jones by a wide margin securing 54 percent of the vote. He could have a better showing than his last two close victories this time round. On Nov. 3, popular Attorney General Kamala Harris was scheduled to visit Bera’s Elk Grove office, to give the 2nd-term Congressman’s campaign a boost.
Ro Khanna
Khanna, who served as deputy assistant secretary in the U.S. Commerce Department during the Obama administration, has written a book about boosting the country’s exports, and teaches at Stanford University, got a boost this October when former President Jimmy Carter gave him a strong endorsement. He has also been able to get some big names in Silicon Valley behind him, according to news reports. Yet he has a tough job defeating a veteran lawmaker in Honda despite an ongoing Congressional ethics probe.
The PPIC poll which shows a high level of support for President Obama (60 percent) and Clinton (88 percent among likely Democratic voters) may not favor Khanna, who is working hard nevertheless to secure the independent and undecided voters in his district. The silver lining is that President Obama has refrained from endorsing Honda outright, unlike in previous elections.
However, the best evidence that Khanna has an opportunity to beat Honda is the 2 percentage point win he secured in the primary.
And a recent Survey USA poll conducted Oct. 4-7, showed Khanna leading with 38 percent over Honda’s 37 percent. In 2014, Honda defeated Khanna by 3.6 percent.
This Sept. 22, Honda filed a lawsuit against Khanna and his campaign manager alleging they had violated the federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. Observers don’t see the lawsuit going anywhere and Khanna’s campaign described it as an attempt to distract voters from the House Ethics Committee probe.
Most recently, Honda ran an ad that observers criticized as verging on racist. It plays on some negative stereotypes – showing a tall and lanky Indian-American who could well be Khanna, in expensive large size shoes, stepping into a limousine and picking up a phone labeled ‘Wall Street.’ According to a commentator on Mercurynews.com, not only is the ad “all wrong” on issues since Khanna is “a progressive Democrat” but “there’s something more sinister at work here — an attack that takes unsubtle aim at race and the smoldering resentment that many people hold toward those who have succeeded,” said commentator Scott Herhold in an Oct. 15 piece. “The problem is that the Khanna figure does not simply portray one man. He evokes stereotypes and prejudices about Indian-Americans, who occasionally face something analogous to the anti-Semitism that once did not bother to hide itself in America,” Herhold adds.
Khanna’s District covers the heart of Silicon Valley and encompasses portions of both Santa Clara County and Alameda County including the cities of Fremont, Newark, Sunnyvale, Cupertino, Santa Clara, North San Jose, and Milpitas.
Pramila Jayapal
Jayapal, a life-long activist committed to immigrant rights and women’s issues, with experience on Wall Street as well, is pitted against fellow progressive Democrat Brady Pinero Walkinshaw in Washington’s District 7. She has built a multi-ethnic coalition with hundreds of volunteers going door-to-door and has raised $2.23 million as of Sept. 30, according to the Federal Election Commission. Walkinshaw reported collecting $1.46 million. Though Walkinshaw and Jayapal were the top two winners in the August caucuses, the Indian-American won 42 percent of the vote to Walkinshaw’s 21 percent in a 9-way race. That’s how popular she is and why many observers expect her to win her bid for Congress.
She told News India Times she was not taking anything for granted even in the last weeks before Nov. 8. “We may be well-positioned to win, but we still have to raise a lot of money before Election Day and I hope the Indian-American community around the country will support me,” she said. “We have another $350,000 to reach our goal of $3 million needed for this Congressional race,” she estimated. “But it’s not just about how we raise the money; it’s also about how we are spending it.” Unlike her campaign, Walkinshaw has focused on TV ads, she says, while she has encouraged door-knocking and flyers and email outreach to more than 300,000 people.
Jayapal is a long-time Bernie Sanders supporter when the Vermont Senator was running for Democratic nominee against Hillary Clinton. She has toed the party line to rally behind Clinton in the run up to Nov. 8.
Raja Krishnamoorthi
Krishnamoorthi’s 8th District in Illinois is heavily Democratic which makes his win among the most certain Nov. 8. Recently, he got a boost from President Obama who asked voters in a video to take advantage of early voting and support his “good friend Raja Krishnamoorthi.” The video has gone out to tens of thousands of voters in the 8th District via email, and to several thousand more through social media and the Internet, Krishnamoorthi said. Close to 12,000 voters in his district had already voted two days after early voting began Oct. 24, he said, based on information put out by the Cook County Clerk’s office.
“When I ran for the U.S. Senate, Raja helped me develop ideas for building an economy that works for everyone,” the President said in his video. “Now Raja’s plans will help small businesses grow, raise wages, and help families pay for college.”
Krishnamoorthi has received the endorsements of major newspapers like the Chicago Tribune and Chicago Sun-Times. Raised in Peoria, Illinois, he earned his bachelor’s degree summa cum laude in mechanical engineering from Princeton University and graduated with honors from Harvard Law School.
He was Illinois’s Deputy Treasurer, and in 2006, was appointed by Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan to serve as Special Assistant Attorney General in her Public Integrity Unit. He also served as a member of the Illinois Housing Development Authority, where he was chairman of the Audit Committee.
He currently serves as president of Sivananthan Labs and Episolar, Inc., small businesses that sell products in the national security and renewable energy industries.
Peter Jacob
Jacob, 30, a Masters in Social Work and strong Bernie Sanders supporters, has gained some traction over the last six months. He attracted attention in June for elbowing his way to the Democratic nomination against the establishment choice. He continues to sound like a plausible alternative in New Jersey’s 7th Congressional District, to the comfortably ensconced Republican incumbent Leonard Lance.
Non-partisan ratings organizations place the race with Lance. Ballotpedia currently rates this race as safely Republican and the Cook Political Report described it as “Solidly Republican” in August.
Six months ago, Vin Gopal, chair of the New Jersey Monmouth County Democratic Party told Desi Talk, “Money attracts money. He needs strong fundraising, and good polling.” This November 2, Jacob announced his fundraising had jumped by $70,000, all from small donors, after Sanders gave him a ringing endorsement. According to Jacob’s June 30 filing with the Federal Election Commission, his total receipts were $35,367 and cash-in-hand was a mere $25,526, compared to Lance’s $832,962 with cash- on- hand at $ 365,697. As of Oct. 19, Jacob’s total receipts equaled $140,076 while Lance’s stood at over $1 million.
Recently, anti-Semite graffiti was found on Jacob’s house that he contended was a result of his opponent’s validation of the national rhetoric against minorities emanating from the Trump campaign. It is not clear if that could turn some uncommitted voters to Jacob’s camp. Lance’s campaign told Desi Talk they condemned the graffiti and had nothing to do with it.
Yet, Jacob hopes to corral dissatisfied Democrats and Republicans behind him and being a millennial, expects that group in his court.
Jacob says an internal poll shows he has closed the gap with Lance, which back in June was a solid 9 percent. The poll he said shows Lance at 38 percent and him at 34 percent. “We are only behind Lance by 4%, and the large number of undecided voters means this election is still ours to win,” Jacob said.
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