Considering all of the rural areas and dirt-poor urban centers in the country, you have to be a little surprised that Jim Costa's Central Valley district is the worst in the country for quality of life.
Poverty, poor health and low graduation rates have put the San Joaquin Valley's 20th Congressional District dead last in a new national scorecard that ranks the well-being of residents.
Even notoriously grim Appalachia fares better than the congressional district that sweeps in Fresno, Kings and Kern counties, the study made public Wednesday shows. The assessment of health, education and income ranks the district 436th out of 436 districts nationwide.
CA-20 has the lowest rate of college graduates in the country, just 6.5%. The median annual salary is just $16,767, and life expectancy is 4.5 years lower than in rich, high well-being areas like the Upper East Side of Manhattan. It's an appalling set of numbers.
We know the challenges in this district. Factory-style farming has lowered the air quality and increased the public health risks. As income inequality stratifies, places like the Central Valley get left behind, even more so in a California with a 6.9% unemployment rate. A lack of development into 21st-century jobs causes a brain drain, and higher energy prices cripple rural America.
And there's a residual benefit. A dirt-poor district is a district that doesn't vote heavily or pay much attention to politics, paradoxically so since they need to the most. And so we get Representatives like Jim Costa, whose district has the lowest participation rates in the entire state. Which means he can vote the wrong way on issues like FISA or war funding and not get much feedback about it from a constituency that's struggling to survive. In this context, his desire to return federal funds to the district or improve quality of life would seem to be low, at best. It's a vicious circle: poverty breeds inattention, inattention breeds bad lawmakers, bad lawmakers have trouble improving poverty.
We need less legislators like Jim Costa who seem more interested in pleasing their corporate contributors than the suffering citizens in their own districts. The problem is how to reach a low-information constituency, and how to make that connection, that sustained political power and engagement is vital if we want to end poverty and build the post-carbon, post-agrarian economy that would lift up whole regions like the Central Valley.
Today marks the launch of Health Care For America Now, a national coalition which plans to organize millions of Americans at the grassroots level to advocate for quality, affordable health care for everyone.
We're bringing together community organizers, nurses, doctors, small business owners, faith-based groups, organizations of people of color, and seniors who believe it's time we had an American solution that provides quality, affordable health care for everyone.
We're offering a bold new solution that gives you real choice and a guarantee of quality coverage you can afford: keep your current private insurance plan, pick a new private insurance plan, or join a public health insurance plan.
We're also calling for regulation on health insurance companies. We need to set and enforce rules that quash health insurance companies' greed once and for all.There is a huge divide between our plan and the insurance companies' plan for healthcare reform. We want to make sure you have the quality coverage you need at the price you can afford. They want to leave you alone to fend for yourself in the unregulated, bureaucratic health insurance market.
Our plan is affordable for people and business. Their plan is profitable for them. With no regulation, health insurance companies can and will charge whatever they want, set high deductibles, and continue to drop coverage when you get sick. Now is the time to pick a side. Which side are you on?
Elizabeth Edwards is one of the high-profile faces of this coalition, but it's fairly broad, including AFSCME, Americans United for Change, Campaign for America's Future, Center for American Progress Action Fund, Center for Community Change, MoveOn.org, the NEA, National Women's Law Center, Planned Parenthood, the SEIU, the UFCW, and USAction. Today they are running live launch events all over the country, including two in California. One is happening at this hour in Los Angeles, featuring Lt. Governor John Garamendi. There's another event in San Francisco on the steps of City Hall at 11:30 featuring Mayor Gavin Newsom. The names shouldn't surprise you - they're both two of the most high-profile advocates for universal health care in the state, and they'll both use the issue as a springboard for their 2010 gubernatorial campaigns.
What I'm more interested in is HCAN's strategy to work inside Bush Dog districts to hold them accountable should they prostrate themselves for the insurance industry.
The work of Health Care For America Now was first made public late last week. But the group, with Elizabeth Edwards as a figurehead, offered expanded insight into the details of its campaign during a meeting on Monday. In addition to spending $40 million -- $1.5 million of which will be put behind an initial ad buy (national TV, print, and online) -- the group will be sending organizers to 52 cities, blasting out emails to 5 million households, airing spots on MSNBC and CNN and submitting op-eds to major papers (officials hinted at the New York Times piece to come).
In addition, the campaign is going to take advantage of Moveon.org's massive data files to reach out to like-minded supporters and officials promised to work in Democratic and Republican districts alike.
"We'll have an organizer in the district of every Blue Dog Democrat," said HCAN campaign manager Richard Kirsch of the conservative Democrats.
"The focus of the campaign," he added, "is on national legislation. "This year, however, it is also a referendum: do you support quality, affordable, health care for all, or an alliance with the private insurance industry?"
Right on. These Bush Dogs need constant pressure and the threat of job loss in order to do right by their constituents. I don't know how successful HCAN will be, but they certainly have the right strategy.
Fresno peace activists are taking it to Jim Costa. A coordinated effort from throughout the region is coming together
to "pressure Democratic Representative Jim Costa to vote NO on the September bill to continue funding the occupation of Iraq." [Peace Fresno president Bill] Simon wrote that "each group will take one day a week to picket in front of Costa's office and perhaps to go into the office to say 'No more funding'. We will also encourage passers by to call their Congressman and Senators."
Rep. Lynn Woolsey recently said that moderate Democrats need to hear the message that people in their district care. In Fresno, the message is getting through to local activists. Jean Hays, President of WILPF (Women's International League for Peace and Freedom) explains the strategy: "Some say Congress is not listening to us; we say maybe WE ARE NOT TALKING LOUD ENOUGH!!"
This is how we apply pressure and bring about change.
Let me say flat out that I'm thrilled with the unfolding Bush Dog campaign, even though the precise outlines are a bit undefined. The central thrust is clear, and the timeframe is short. Fact is, I'm so thrilled that I want to suggest doing something even more ambitious to start working on in background mode, even as we move quickly on the Bush Dog front.
What I'm proposing is a project focused on the battleground districts-with the Bush Dogs in safe districts as a sort of penumbral offshoot. (As noted in my previous diary, more than half the Bush Dogs-22 out of 38-come from safe districts.) The logic here is that whatever is true about battleground districts in a progressive sense will be even more true for the safe district Bush Dogs. What I envision is combining national and local strategizing, letting activists at each level take on the roles they are best suited to.
What trigged this was a post by Julia Rosen at Calitics expressinig her extreme frustration with Jerry McNerney who's quoted in a Washington Post article talking incoherent GOP-appeasement gibberish. In the discussion, Kid Oakland points to McNerney's voting record. It's clear that he's no Bush Dog. But it's also clear that he's being influenced by hanging out with a bad crowd in DC. We need a way to organize a coherent counterforce. My proposal abuot how to go about it is on the flip.
Chris Bowers and Matt Stoller have started the Bush Dog Project to identify those Democrats who have voted with the President on the major issues that have the rank and file screaming betrayal; specifically, the Capitulation Bill giving Bush billions more for Iraq, and the FISA bill allowing Alberto Gonzales to wiretap American citizens without a warrant. These are overwhelmingly unpopular positions at odds with most of the American people, to say nothing of Democrats. Yet 38 "Bush Dog" Democrats voted for both of these bills, including one member of Congress from California: Jim Costa.
Costa is a member of the Blue Dogs but not the New Democrat Coalition. He's in one of the most Democratic seats out of the 38, with a Cook PVI of +4.6, so he's wildly out of step with his constituency. CA-20, Costa's district, runs along I-5 through Fresno, Kings and Kern Counties in the Central Valley. It includes the city of Fresno. Democrats have held this seat for a while, but Costa was only elected in 2004, replacing Cal Dooley (who was also something of a Bush Dog, having voted to authorize the war in Iraq, a vote he now regrets). While Costa had a mildly difficult battle winning the open seat against Roy Ashburn in 2004 (he won 54-46%), he faced no Republican opposition in 2006.
So we have a somewhat new legislator in a traditionally New Democrat seat, but it's in a district that gave Al Gore his largest margin of victory outside of the urban metropolises. And it's 63% Latino. So there's no excuse for Costa to be so in line with President Bush on the major issues, and certainly no excuse for him voting to throw the Fourth Amendment overboard and drown it (Incidentally, AT&T has given him a lot of money over the years. Do with that information what you will.). This is also important because the Central Valley needs to return to being a more prominently Democratic area, and Jim Costa needs to be the standard bearer for that because this is the most Democratic district in the region. So he must hear from his constituents about their displeasure with his being a rubber stamp for failed Bush Administration initiatives and the taking away of our civil liberties. This will ultimately make us a stronger party.
