A mailer sent by Ro Khanna to CA17 voters
last week contained a few errors. 

CONGRESS | 17TH DISTRICT | Newark school board member Nancy Thomas will be surprised to know she is now the vice president of the Alameda County Board of Education. Except she’s not.

Ro Khanna’s campaign, for months, has trumpeted a slowly growing list of former supporters of Rep. Mike Honda who have switched allegiance from the incumbent to their side. But according to a Khanna mailer sent last week, some of them their elected offices were also switched.

In addition to Thomas, the job description of Alameda County Board of Education member Eileen McDonald was listed on the mailer as being the vice mayor of Sunnyvale.

The error by the Khanna campaign is hardly catastrophic, but certainly embarrassing, especially since the theme of the mailer intended to highlight Honda supporters switching to Khanna and not switching their entire jobs.

The Honda campaign appeared intent on teasing the Khanna campaign for the error, in addition, to skewering a campaign strategy being employed by the Khanna campaign this election cycle to focus on local issues in the 17th congressional district.

“After spending years district-hopping as a perpetual candidate it is no surprise that Ro Khanna is so out of touch with his community that he can’t even identify his own supporters properly, on his own mail,” said Vedant Patel, political director for the Honda campaign. “Maybe he should spend less time filling his campaign coffers from right wing corporate executives ready to trample over middle class families. The people of Silicon Valley deserve better.”

In another indication that this year’s rematch will be far more acrimonious than two years ago,
Khanna’s campaign clearly did not enjoy the ribbing over the erroneously mailer and lobbed a number of bombs in return.

“We’d like to thank the Honda campaign for another opportunity to remind everyone that prominent Democrats, in the wake of his general ineffectiveness and his on-going ethics investigation, are abandoning Mike Honda in droves for Ro Khanna,” said Khanna spokesperson Hari Sevugan.

“And let’s be clear – In the last four months, Ro Khanna has personally knocked on 2,023 doors, made 1,247 calls, and just completed his 8th town hall in the last seven weeks; more than Mike Honda has hosted in the last 15 years. Rather than being in touch with the voters, Mike Honda has been in touch with the House Ethics Committee, his defense lawyers and his top donors so they can fund his legal defense before the House Ethics Committee.

“If Mike Honda had been in touch the voters he’d know they don’t want a Congressman who is under a federal ethics investigation for using his office to help his biggest contributors, or a Congressman whose campaign is funded by lobbyists and PACs, or a Congressman who has passed one bill in 15 years – to name a post office. While Mike Honda has been asleep at the wheel, Ro Khanna has been collecting the endorsement of prominent Democrats across the district, as well as the support of more and more Democratic, Republican and Independent voters who are ready for change.”

The mistake appears only contained in the mailer, not online and other sources.

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