17TH CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT
Let bygones be bygones. At least that’s what Rep. Ro Khanna thinks after he wished a happy birthday to his former political rival and the man he replaced in the 17th Disrict, former Rep. Mike Honda. Khanna tweeted his birthday wish on Twitter early Tuesday morning.

Recall, though, that Honda sued Khanna and his campaign manager, Brian Parvizshahi last fall alleging they illegally accessed Honda’s digital donor lists. Honda later equated Khanna to “Russian hacker.”

In hindsight, the information was later leaked to the San Jose Metro alt-weekly and the series of articles including a so-called “1,000 Cranes” strategy for reaching out to donors ultimately became the partial basis for a dubious congressional ethics inquiry and one year of press clippings continually hinting at Honda’s lack of probity.

However, the foundation of linking Khanna’s runaway victory and the alleged pilfering of information was never made by the mainstream media and Khanna beat Honda by 20 points last November.

To further question Khanna’s magnanimity in offering birthday well-wishes, the Honda lawsuit was quietly resolved behind closed doors earlier this year. Did Khanna decide to settle the lawsuit on the under rather than have it muddle the beginning of his first term in Congress? Likely so.

But it wouldn’t be the first time Khanna has responded to campaign-related turmoil by later acting like nothing happened. Recall the story of former campaign staffer Bill Ferguson, who claimed Khanna owed him $6,000 for work done.

Afterwards, Khanna kept in touch with Ferguson, according to emails, as if nothing had happened.
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