Remember that story earlier this year about Rep. Devin Nunes blowing $15,000 in Leadership PAC money to go watch his favorite basketball team, the Boston Celtics, live and in person? Well, a review of Nunes’ Leadership PAC records indicates that he also has been spending Leadership PAC money on swanky, overseas travel– namely an apparent vacation to his family’s native Portugal. According to a letter sent to the Federal Elections Commission in October by the Swamp Accountability Project, a group that has been deeply critical of Nunes, “Nunes financed a trip to Portugal including a visit to the swanky Tivoli Avenida Liberdade Lisboa hotel using Leadership PAC funds.” The letter adds: As you are no doubt aware, Rep. Nunes is of Portuguese descent; since 2013, he has been a “Grand Officer” of the Portuguese “Order of Prince Henry”; he likely boasts many friends and family in Portugal. However, as Portuguese…

Cal Dirt has exclusively obtained a copy of a letter sent by Orange County congressional candidate Harley Rouda to Rep. Dana Rohrabacher calling on the beleaguered congressman to publicly release his testimony to the House Intelligence Committee regarding a swath of issues relevant to Rohrabacher’s ties to Russia and his pro-Russia policy advocacy. The letter demands that Rohrabacher “release to the public your full testimony to the House Intelligence Committee” noting that “At present, Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee are blocking the release of your testimony.” Rouda’s letter also states that “reporting by the Los Angeles Times… reveals that you met with two Russian nationals that you presumed to be spies. The uncontradicted reporting also says that the outcome of your Russian meeting was as follows: You used information from individuals that you presumed to be Russian spies to lobby fellow Members of Congress on the Magnitsky Act.” The…

Has the National Republican Congressional Committee decided to abandon endangered Orange County Republican Rep. Mimi Walters? It sure looks like it. Per the New York Times’ Alex Burns, Republican “strategists said several other incumbents must recover quickly or risk losing funding, including Representatives Peter Roskam of Illinois and Mimi Walters of California, who represent white-collar suburbs near Chicago and Los Angeles, respectively.” But according to D.C. insiders, the decision has already de facto been made to dump Walters, who new– albeit controversial– polling from the University of California-Berkeley shows losing by seven points. Theoretically, Walters could turn that deficit around and the national GOP could use ad time reserved to try to bolster her, but the greater likelihood is they would focus on other candidates to try to keep losses to 20 to 22 seats total in November. California Republicans are struggling this cycle, due to the GOP tax reform bill effectively…

By the time we get to election day, proponents and opponents of California’s Proposition 10– the rent control initiative on this year’s ballot– may  have dumped nearly $100 million into the fight. But that’s not the weirdest thing about the battle over Prop 10. In fact, it’s this: Big Pharma is playing in the Prop 10 war, apparently to stick it to a major backer of rent control that is engaged in a separate policy fight with the industry over a drug discount program you’ve probably never even heard of. Here’s the dirt. The AIDS Healthcare Foundation is a major proponent of a drug discount program called 340B. Here’s a picture of an ad they’re running at bus stops all over Washington, D.C., aimed at preventing Congress from gutting the program (which actually receives zero taxpayer dollars). Big Pharma hates 340B, with a passion. The drug industry thinks that despite…

California has long been at the forefront of efforts to shift towards greener energy production and greener energy consumption. But as the state drives forward towards bringing more electric vehicles on the road (pun intended), a rift is beginning to emerge between different progressive camps in the state. Witness the recently announced lawsuit from The Two Hundred, a coalition of prominent civil rights leaders in the state, against the California Air Resources Board (CARB), which has been pushing grants for electric buses, or “e-buses,” in Oakland and elsewhere. In the lawsuit, The Two Hundred argues that California’s “green energy” policies are effectively racist by driving up housing costs and driving away jobs through onerous regulation: “California’s climate policies guarantee that housing, transportation and electricity prices will continue to rise, while ‘gateway’ jobs to the middle class for those without college degrees, such as manufacturing and logistics, will continue to locate in other…

New polling from the University of California-Berkeley shows that basically everywhere in the Golden State, Republicans are getting their butts spanked by Democrats in a massive revolt against Republican congressional leadership, President Trump and/or individual candidate failings. According to the new polling,  Rep. Jeff Denham trails challenger Josh Harder by five points; Rep. Steve Knight trails challenger Katie Hill by four points; former Assemblywoman Young Kim trails Gil Cisneros by one point; Rep. Mimi Walters trails Katie Porter by seven points; and in Rep. Darrell Issa’s seat, Diane Harkey trails Mike Levin by 14 points. According to the poll, in a few races, imperiled Republicans are in better shape, but still not in the clear. Reps. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Russia) and Duncan Hunter (R-Corruption) are basically tied with their Democratic opponents.  Rep. Devin Nunes is only eight points ahead of challenger Andrew Janz in a district Nunes usually wins with about 70 percent of the…

Have you read Ryan Lizza’s big scoop about Rep. Devin Nunes, his family and their farm in Esquire yet? If not, you probably should. The story is getting a lot of play in national and California media, and it ties right in with this attack ad being run by the Swamp Accountability Project in Nunes’ district: “Not Who He Says.” The ad hasn’t received a lot of attention in the media. But its entire point is that Nunes is totally disconnected from the Central Valley: He’s gone MIA on water issues, he was dead silent on family separations, he isn’t doing anything about tariffs hurting farmers in the Central Valley, while the Farm Bill was dying on a vine, he was busy threatening Jeff Sessions, yada, yada, yada. (There’s also stuff in the ad about Nunes’ winery’s scandal involving the alleged use of a corporate yacht by Nunes’ co-investors to…

Remember House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy’s gas tax repeal gambit to turn out more Republican voters in November and “help save” imperiled GOP incumbents in a slew of California House districts? Well, it looks like California Democrats have devised an equivalent and cheaper strategy, all of their own: Kill off Rep. Mimi Walters, Rep. Dana Rohrabacher and Diane Harkey (who’s running to replace retiring Rep. Darrell Issa) by juicing Democratic voter turnout to take out State Senate Republican Leader Pat Bates. Bates, who is facing off against electoral newbie Marggie Castellano, represents chunks of both Orange and San Diego counties with a toehold in each of the targeted congressional districts. So, the theory goes, motivate local Democratic voters to take Bates out, and you maybe bump up the numbers exactly enough to bank a surefire takeover of three currently Republican-held districts. Bonus: You also potentially force Republicans to spend time…

In an early assessment of what the 2020 presidential contest will look like, top DC lobbying shop Mehlman Castagnetti has identified three California Democrats likely to run for President, meaning the Golden State could dominate the 2020 race unmatched by other states. According to the firm, all of Sen. Kamala Harris, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti and billionaire Tom Steyer could step up. But in a move that might surprise some political observers, Mehlman Castagnetti pins Steyer far to the right of Garcetti and Harris on the ideological spectrum. That rating is at odds with Steyer’s public perception, as a diehard lefty pushing for President Trump’s impeachment, and a slew of green energy laws that would move the country in a sharply environmentalist direction. Per Mehlman Castagnetti, Steyer comes in just slightly to the left of once-Republican former New York City Mayor and fellow billionaire Mike Bloomberg, dead even with…