ELECTION ‘12//CONGRESS 15 | Eric Swalwell might sing “Rubber duckie, you’re the one” in the bathtub following a hard day on the campaign trail, but the floating yellow novelty he’s passing out to the voters is not made in America, says Rep. Pete Stark.
On Friday, Stark’s campaign went on the offensive skewering Swalwell’s use of Chinese-made rubber ducks throughout his campaign. Citing a portion of Swalwell’s plan for creating jobs, contained on his campaign website that states, “Rebuilding American manufacturing is the key in rebuilding our economy,” the Stark campaign asks, “So are Eric’s rubber duckies made in the U.S.? No, not at all.”
Swalwell has handed out rubber ducks throughout his campaign at campaign events to mock Stark’s unwillingness to participate in candidates’ forums over the past six months, even though rubber chickens are more commonly used. However, rubber chickens are far more cost-prohibitive than tiny plastic ducks.
Campaign finance reports released this week show expenditures totaling $1,300 made Swalwell to the popular novelty company, Oriental Trading, over the past few months. Company representatives say the items are manufactured in China, according to Stark.
Stark says he has supported and co-sponsored legislation to create local jobs in the past, “I’ve fought to deliver real results, not rubber duckies,” said Stark. “Our economic recovery is fragile, and now is not the time to send a rookie – or a rubber duckie – to Congress.”
ebcitizen.com 
By MW:
After reading about Stark's complaint that Swalwell was distributing rubber duckies that were not made in the USA, I thought about the fact that most likely the majority of the items, and almost all of the department store and variety store items, the average American buys are probably produced outside the US, and especially for people who buy at ordinary middle class stores, and such as for example Sears, Walmart, Target, Costco, and Walgreens, etc, and as opposed to stores such as Nordstroms and Neiman Marcus.
For instance in the past year my wife bought a simple and very basic CD player for about twenty dollars and a small handheld radio for about twelve dollars. In the last few months I myself bought a pair of shoes at Walmart for about thirteen dollars, and as anybody who knows me could attest, I also have similar “high standards” in the shirts and pants I normally buy and wear. Obviously the probability that any of those low cost items were produced in the US is extremely small.
Perhaps if I were to regularly go shopping at such places as Nordstroms and Neiman Marcus and buy the very most expensive shoes, shirts, pants, cameras, TV's, radios, and CD players, etc, they carried, a significant portion might have been made in the USA. However as long as my standard of living is much closer to Chevrolet standards than Cadillac standards, almost certainly over ninety five percent of the department store items I buy will have been made outside the US, and regardless of whether or not the label discloses such, AND IN FACT EVEN IF THE LABEL PRETENDS IT WAS PRODUCED IN THE USA.
For instance, recently I saw in O'Reilly's weekly ad (it previously went by such names as Kragen and Grand Auto) a fairly nice looking small socket set on special for only five or ten dollars. If you think about it, the probability that an item selling for such a low price was produced in the USA is infinitely small.
However since Pete Stark and his family obviously have an extremely substantial income – and in fact he is also even collecting social security for his minor children – I therefore suggest since he can easily afford to support our own industries, that therefore he not buy anything that is not made in the USA, and even if some of those items would cost him up to several times as much to buy than if they were made outside the USA.
LikeLike
Agree, the Stark campaign now has Cornu written all over it and what she lacks is a understanding that voters aren't buying all the knee-jerk tired old concepts.
Knee-jerk voters will probably buy into her mailers and charges, but her campaign lacks any sophistication to bring in many of the new voters in this expanded district.
By taking cheap shots at Swalwell you don't overcome the last 20+ years of Stark's “I'm entitled to this seat” arrogance.
She is behind putting up those absurd “Pete anwering the tough issues” videos.
Those are laughable, who in the world did she think would view them?
Again, it only served to make the press highlight how silly they were.
NO, the only smart move Cornu has brought to the campaign is to make sure Pete never appears in public. Gosh, even a neophyte could have told her to do that.
The truth is, that if Pete had only stayed in Maryland from January 1st onward, he be doing better in the polls than he now is.
I'm dead serious, he has far and away been Swalwell's best campaign promoter via his endless gaffes.
LikeLike
This has Cornu and her super-union bent all over it. She really has no idea what she is doing. She went down to Swalwell's level and I didn't think that could happen.
LikeLike
Term limits are the last thing anyone should want; the longer a Congressional Rep is in office the greater the the influence they weild, the greater the influence the more money that comes back home.
LikeLike
The answer is term limits. The President has term limits, so should everyone else. Many of these people have been in office way too long. Guess they like the money and the perks.
LikeLike
Big deal! I remember Bill Lockyer mailed out hot pad holders with his name on them to women voters. I got one, only thing in this house my husband is a much better cook and it should have mailed it to him. Bet those hot pad holders weren't made in America.
After seeing the picture of the rubber duck, I would have rather gotten a rubber duck than a hot pot holder. It's much cuter.
LikeLike
By MW:
I am many times more concerned about the fact that the East Bay's so called and make believe representative, in other words Pete Stark, for decades has been a product and resident of Maryland, and definitely NOT of the San Lorenzo house he pretends is his residence, than where Swalwell's rubber duckies are produced.
However if we really want to make a huge stink, since the Democratic Party pretends to represent and be the party of the little people and the ordinary working man, therefore every time a prominent mainstream Democrat, and such as for example Dianne Feinstein, Jerry Brown, Willie Brown, Bill Lockyer, PETE STARK, Nancy Pelosi, and Bill or Hillary Clinton, etc, hires a contractor to do any work for themselves, their office, their campaign, their business, or any commercial property they are an owner of, let's make sure they hire union labor and real union contractors, and NOT lower cost non union labor and/or a contractor who only pretends to be union.
For instance, for decades one of the most important Democratic Party election campaign fundraisers, and a guy who was also a close friend and political associate of Willie Brown, Jerry Brown, Dianne Feinstein, the Aliotos, and Bill and Hillary Clinton, etc, was a character by the name of M.L. “Larry The Liar” Lawrence, and who was a notorious union buster, and who would exit businesses he had earlier gotten involved in, and such as for instance home building in Southern California, if he was under too much pressure to have his business go union.
Lawrence's admitted net worth, in other words not even counting the money he had hidden in such places as Switzerland, was in the hundreds of millions of dollars.
And among Lawrence's assets was a huge San Francisco office building that he was the primary owner of and which he pretended was union.
One of the scams he ran at that building (in fact, that buiding was even the subject of a newspaper article titled “ASBESTOS BY THE BAY”) was having a skeleton, and primarily union, janitorial crew on Monday thru Friday dayshift, in other words when the tenants were around, but having the majority of the janitorial work done on the weekend by large crews of undocumented aliens, and who would then usually be fired without pay, and under threat of being turned into Immigration for deportation if they did not quietly disappear.
Although such characters as Feinstein, Willie Brown, Bill Lockyer, and PETE STARK were informed of such, they did not give a hoot since Lawrence was a major source of election campaign contributions and under the table bribes to high ranking Democratic Party politicians.
In fact, one time I even mentioned to Pete Stark the activities that went on in that building, and including trafficking in undocumented aliens and allowing tenants to be exposed to huge clouds of asbestos dust, when Stark was standing outside a Safeway in the East Bay campaigning for votes, but Stark then made it obvious he did not give a hoot.
Of course the various illegal scams Lawrence and his associates were involved in also meant they were evading at least tens of millions of dollars in taxes every year, and also will cause many people to eventually get lung cancer and die.
However the big boys of the Democratic Party, in other words the guys who believe most people should pay higher taxes and also believe that most of us should be forced to pay additional fees so as to be enrolled in such programs as ObamaCare, did not care how many tens of millions of dollars Lawrence and his associates evaded in taxes, and nor how many people will eventually get lung cancer due to the activities of Lawrence and his co conspirators, as long as Lawrence kicked back to them, in other words thru election campaign contributions and under the table bribes, a portion of the money he made thru tax evasion and other illegal activities.
LikeLike
“When Swalwell is in Congress, he's going to spend 4 days and Washington and fly back every weekend? Bullshit!”
Yes, that is what members of congress do, it's their job. Barbara Lee, Mike Thompson, and Jerry McNerney seem to be able to take them just fine…
Also, the person who said that Pete drives an American made car is wrong. He still drives a Mercedes. Actually he doesn't drive it. He has a driver, that is on government payroll.
LikeLike
How does Swalwell pay his own bills? He hasn't worked in the DA's office for a year and he doesn't even have a home. He lives with his brother. Sounds to me like someone is looking a pay increase on the back of taxpayers dollars.
LikeLike
8:55 with regard to that $300,000 claim, where is that shown? I have visited the FEC website and looked over the past filings.
I can't find anything about any money going to his wife.
How about a site that documents that in detail.
LikeLike
zzzzzzzzzzzzzz. More interested in his Stark's wife getting $300,000 as his treasurer while they paid for accounting services.
LikeLike
7:34… “why not keep the guy who knows his way around DC?”
Uh, because his cognitive abilities have declined so far that he can't even face the public in any event without revealing to everyone that he is no longer in control of his mind.
Have you even seen his repeated problems on so many newscasts and videos.
Sorry, but Pete has lost it. Even those who support him are nervous when he is around people.
Read that recent Tribune article where everyone holds their breath, uncertain what Pete will blurt out.
That is why his campaign manager will no longer allow him to appear in public. He has become his own worst enemy. BTW, he pulls the same stuff back in DC and has lost the respect of most congress members.
Even his own Democratic party members have refused to honor his seniority, which is unheard of back there.
His seniority has disolved to nothing.
It is questionable if he would even be able to serve out the full two year term. He misses a huge number of votes as it is.
We don't need aging Strom Thurmond to represent us.
I don't know what is causing his condition. Its more than just age.
For example Diane Feinstein is only 2 year younger, but she is still sharp and vibrant, well respected in Washington. The complete opposite of Pete in the past two years.
Heck, just listen to the two of them speak. No need to explain anything after you see those two being compared.
LikeLike
Where does Eric live? His brother house? How cute.
LikeLike
How is Pete AWOL? When Swalwell is in Congress, he's going to spend 4 days and Washington and fly back every weekend? Bullshit! I think Pete is out of touch to the voter above because he's a conservative Tea Party whack job. Swalwell even told the New York Times he would vote the same way as Pete. Why not keep the guy who knows his way around DC.
LikeLike
I met Eric recently – he seems genuinely interested in helping move this district forward. Pete has ben AWOL from the district for years. When he is here he seems only to be able to insult people and prove how out of touch he has become. Time for the voters to retire him since he doesn't have the sense to do so himself.
LikeLike
Weak, very weak. Not only a weak move by Stark, but it only serves to highlight his unwillingness to appear in public instead of on those awful videos where “Pete Stark answers the tough questions”
The ducks are better than the chickens, because Pete is “ducking” the debates and forums, in addition to every other public appearance.
No honest observer can see this campaign and not say that Pete is in full-on hiding mode.
Harder to find Pete these days than it was to find Bin Laden. Apparently he is back on his estate in Maryland. Perhaps he is boning up for the “debate”.
It is fair to say that for the rest of this campaign Pete is literally going to “mail it in”.
BTW, back in the 90's when the UAW was undergoing many problems, I asked Pete at a “town-hall” event why he was taking a $5,000 contribution from the UAW and then spending almost exactly the same amount ($5,500) to lease a large German made Mercedes Benz, from a non union dealership.
Well, you could have seen Pete turn red, and then give the most terse reply of that day, telling me he needed comments like that from Republicans..
I then told him I was a lifelong Democrat who had walked precincts for him in 1972..
Pete moved on to the next question, but was steamed.
Not too long after that, his next car was American made.
That, my friends, was the arrogant Pete, totally assured he would win every election. No need to be polite or sweet. Many voters, Democrat, Independent, and Republican, remember and have experienced THAT Pete Stark.
LikeLike
not what i am looking for-tony santos
LikeLike