Indy Digest: Jan. 29, 2024
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has selected California’s 41st Congressional District as one of its top 17 targets this year to flip from Republican to Democratic representation.
From a news release:
Today, the DCCC announced that Will Rollins has been added to the first round of its highly competitive ‘Red to Blue’ program, signaling that the DCCC is invested in providing Rollins, a top-tier candidate, with the support needed to continue building a winning campaign as he runs for California’s 41st Congressional District.
“As a former federal prosecutor, Will Rollins has spent years holding criminals accountable and prioritizing the safety of Inland Empire families. In Congress, he’ll use that experience to fight against extremism, take on corporate price-gougers that are making life more expensive for Southern Californians, and deliver real solutions for his community. Rollins is more than ready to defeat Ken Calvert,” said DCCC Chair Rep. Suzan DelBene.
Will Rollins is a former federal prosecutor who has spent his career taking on counterterrorism cases and working to keep Inland Empire residents safe. For five years, Will served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Terrorism and Export Crimes Section of the National Security Division, where he helped prosecute some of the insurrectionists who attacked the U.S. Capitol on January 6th. Additionally, he helped the FBI respond to threats from ISIS, the Sinaloa cartel, and Al Qaeda terrorists.
Will was the Democratic nominee for Congress in CA-41 in 2022, and significantly overperformed the fundamentals of the district—coming closer than any candidate has to unseating the 30-year incumbent Ken Calvert in over a decade.
According to the DCCC, “This initial slate of candidates will receive strategic guidance, staff resources, training, and fundraising support to ensure they are in the best possible position to win in November.”
Politically, this designation is a pretty big deal; it confirms that Congressional District 41—which includes Palm Springs, Rancho Mirage, Palm Desert, Indian Wells and La Quinta—is one of the seats that will help determine which party controls Congress after the election. The GOP currently holds just a six-seat advantage over Democrats (219-213, with three seats vacant).
CD 41, in theory, is as close to a toss-up as they come. The press release mentions that Rollins “significantly overperformed the fundamentals of the district” in 2022, when he lost to Calvert by 11,100 votes; Rollins received 47.6 percent of the vote compared to Calvert’s 52.3 percent.
Democrats actually have a slight registration advantage in the district. As of Jan. 5, 172,184 Democrats were in the district (36.63 percent) compared to 169,969 Republicans (36.16 percent), out of 470,043 registered voters. Despite that advantage, the district had a GOP lean in 2022: In the governor’s race, Republican Brian Dahle (54.6 percent) beat Gov. Gavin Newsom (45.4 percent) in the district. In other words, Rollins outperformed Newsom in 2022.
What will 2024 bring? We shall see.
—Jimmy Boegle
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More News
• The amount that the state (and, therefore, taxpayers) is paying per prison inmate is skyrocketing. Our partners at CalMatters report: “The cost of imprisoning one person in California has increased by more than 90% in the past decade, reaching a record-breaking $132,860 annually, according to state finance documents. That’s nearly twice as expensive as the annual undergraduate tuition—$66,640—at the University of Southern California, the most costly private university in the state. California’s spending per inmate jumped steeply during the COVID-19 pandemic and it continued to increase despite recent cost-cutting moves, including Gov. Gavin Newsom’s recent move to close three state prisons. It’s propelled by lucrative employee compensation deals and costly mandates to improve health care behind bars, according to fiscal analyses by the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst’s Office. Newsom’s most recent budget proposal includes $18.1 billion for the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, up from $15.7 billion when he took office in 2019.”
• Also related to prisons: There’s a good chance a lot of the food you’re eating is being produced, in part, by prisoner labor. The Associated Press says: “A hidden path to America’s dinner tables begins here, at an unlikely source—a former Southern slave plantation that is now the country’s largest maximum-security prison. Unmarked trucks packed with prison-raised cattle roll out of the Louisiana State Penitentiary, where men are sentenced to hard labor and forced to work, for pennies an hour or sometimes nothing at all. After rumbling down a country road to an auction house, the cows are bought by a local rancher and then followed by The Associated Press another 600 miles to a Texas slaughterhouse that feeds into the supply chains of giants like McDonald’s, Walmart and Cargill. … They are among America’s most vulnerable laborers. If they refuse to work, some can jeopardize their chances of parole or face punishment like being sent to solitary confinement. They also are often excluded from protections guaranteed to almost all other full-time workers, even when they are seriously injured or killed on the job. The goods these prisoners produce wind up in the supply chains of a dizzying array of products found in most American kitchens, from Frosted Flakes cereal and Ball Park hot dogs to Gold Medal flour, Coca-Cola and Riceland rice. They are on the shelves of virtually every supermarket in the country, including Kroger, Target, Aldi and Whole Foods. And some goods are exported, including to countries that have had products blocked from entering the U.S. for using forced or prison labor.”
• The Federal Trade Commission has told the company behind TurboTax to stop what it has determined to be deceptive marketing. ProPublica says: “The (FTC) order … was accompanied by a 93-page opinion that harshly criticized Intuit, the Silicon Valley company behind TurboTax. Intuit’s ‘deceptive ad campaign has been sufficiently broad, enduring, and willful to support the need for a cease-and-desist order,’ the commission’s opinion stated. The order caps off a process that started four years ago when the FTC launched an investigation in response to a series of ProPublica stories documenting Intuit’s ad tactics. ProPublica revealed how millions of Americans were lured into paid tax preparation products even though they were eligible to file for free through a government-sponsored program. Huge sums of money are at stake: In a single year, tax prep companies led by Intuit generated $1 billion in revenue from customers who should have been able to file for free, according to one analysis. In a statement, Intuit said it planned to appeal the order in federal court. ‘There is no monetary penalty in the FTC’s order, and Intuit expects no significant impact to its business,’ the statement said, adding that the company ‘has always been clear, fair, and transparent with its customers.’”
• Related: The government is starting a new free tax-filing system of its own. The Los Angeles Times says: “Starting later this year, taxpayers in California, Arizona, Nevada and nine other states will have access to a new program from the IRS called Direct File. Unlike the free filing options the IRS provides through third parties or the free services from TurboTax and H&R Block, Direct File enables you to send sensitive financial information directly to the IRS—no middleman required. It’s also the first service from the agency itself that guides you through the process of filling out your return. And its chat feature can provide answers to basic tax questions in real time from IRS customer service representatives. There’s a catch, however. Although Direct File is available to California taxpayers regardless of how much they earn, it can be used only by people who earn income in limited types of ways. For example, Direct File is not for you if you have income from a business you own, subcontracting work or gig-economy jobs.”
• What in the hell is wrong with Texas? The Washington Post reports: “Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has requested medical records from a Georgia telehealth clinic that provides gender-affirming care, a newly discovered move that shows the Republican official is looking in multiple states for information about transgender youths. Paxton requested transgender youths’ medical records from QueerMed—which is based in Decatur, Ga.—late last year, the health provider’s founder Izzy Lowell told The Washington Post on Sunday. ‘This request from the Texas Attorney general is a clear attempt to intimidate providers of gender-affirming care and parents and families that seek that care outside of Texas and other states with bans,’ Lowell said in a statement. Lowell, a family physician, said the clinic stopped providing services to minors in Texas after that state banned gender-affirming care for minors in September. Paxton’s Nov. 17 request, however, was for information about patients dating back to Jan. 1, 2022. … Georgia is at least the second state where Paxton has sought the medical records of Texas youths, showing that his office is ramping up efforts to curb access to gender-affirming care. Seattle Children’s Hospital received a similar letter in November. In response, the hospital requested a Texas judge to nullify, or at least rein in, Paxton’s demands, saying Paxton does not have jurisdiction over the hospital.”
• Today’s recall news subject: Teslas! NBC News reports: “Tesla is recalling approximately 200,000 vehicles over a software glitch that can prevent rearview cameras from displaying properly. According to a document posted on the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s website, affected models include 2023 versions of Tesla’s Model S, Model X and Model Y vehicles. Tesla says it has released an over-the-air (OTA) software update free of charge, and that owner notification letters are expected to be mailed March 22, 2024. The latest recall represents the 15th for Tesla in the past year. In December, the company recalled more than 2 million vehicles — effectively its entire U.S. fleet—for issues related to its Autopilot driver-assist feature.” That’s a LOT of recalls!
• And finally … this headline screams “yikes”: “Woman thought to be missing was stuck 15 hours overnight up on a gondola at Heavenly Ski Resort.” Some details, from Sacramento’s KCRA: “(Monica) Laso said since it was getting late, she approached a worker who guided her to the gondola after she expressed that she was too tired to continue down the hill. She got into the gondola at around 4:58 p.m., and then two minutes later, it stopped, leaving her alone and stranded. … Without a phone to call for help, Laso said she screamed every time she saw a worker down below, but they couldn’t hear her. ‘I screamed desperately until I lost my voice,’ Laso said. Laso’s friends said they reported her missing to the El Dorado County Sheriff’s Office when they could not get ahold of her. It wasn’t until the gondola started working again Friday and went back down the mountain that crews realized she had been there overnight.” BIG yikes!
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