Mercury News: Desperation hmm

From the day we announced this run on February 14, 2019, our run had been constantly undermined and even under threat. It continues to play out.

Mercury News has endorsed Rep. Eshoo for reasons that have no merits.

WORRIED AND NERVOUS? Our run had been ignored for 20 months until October 28th, 2020. It seems that after we brought up the simple fact about Rep. Eshoo’s 4 trivial bills in 28 years in a district wide email on October 20th, we not only saw a nervous Rep. Eshoo email an explanation to her email list (strangely with no hyperlinks), but the Mercury News decided they wanted to make an endorsement finally. Splendid! They called me and wanted an endorsement interview. “Can we do it early? That would be great. I am an early riser,” said Ed Clendaniel, editor of the Editorial Page at the San Jose Mercury News. They were suddenly operating with a huge sense of urgency. It seemed like they wanted it done yesterday. We could smell something brewing. Red flag!

Someone is nervous? This is what it takes for an upstart like me to win these races!

We knew the outcome, and it played out like we expected.

At this discussion with Ed from The Mercury News, we entered into another debate. round #2, with the Mercury News this time over the phone. We definitely sensed an agenda, minutes into the call. We raised many of the issues with Rep. Eshoo, but the Mercury News chose to ignore them — see details below.

Rishi is a proven leader. Always fighting for the people

The Mercury News chose to ignore my proven track record as a local elected leader, community activist, always fired up to work for the people

• Why does someone like me win with the most votes in Saratoga’s election history — even beating the Mayor quite easily? I barely scraped through with 71 votes in 2014 during my first run to the Saratoga City Council. For the re-election, I was endorsed by hundreds including congressional representatives, senators, assemblymember, county supervisors, mayors, vice mayors, councilmembers and hundreds of neighborhood leaders. But the establishment of Saratoga always felt undermined and chose not to endorse my run. But we have always been grassroots-driven and people-powered — doesn’t bother me at all. The reason we won — I took on the toughest challenges that no one on my city council wanted to. That is what activists do. The 2018 win was historical!
• I challenged the system on the city council and some of my colleagues were not happy. Just read the Mountain Winery project from earlier this year. I always fight on behalf of the people and there is a tremendous trust established between me, and the people.
• I challenged San Jose Water Company — without the support of my city council colleagues. I rolled out a water app to make protests a lot easier. Many in Saratoga, San Jose, Los Gatos, Campbell and Monte Sereno took action and re-directed their protest letters to PUC. There is a clear proof trail. We collectively either rejected, reduced or suspended 8 water rate increases. My colleagues said, “Rishi, we don’t have jurisdiction over San Jose Water.” As a tech executive, I don’t go for the easy button — I always push for solutions and results. Always results driven!
• When burglaries rose, I started having neighborhood meetings in Saratoga. Over hundreds neighborhood meetings, engaging new neighborhood leaders and finding simple solutions. I was told, “Rishi, all this talk of crime will drop the price of real estate in Saratoga.” We delivered results. Burglaries dropped by 47% from 2016 to 2017 — as per the Santa Clara County Sheriff — the largest drop compared to any other city. These things don’t happen magically. My city council colleagues fell behind and formalized this program, even funding it. This program thrives today.

Mercury News chose to ignore the Issues with Rep. Eshoo.

• 28 years and only 4 pieces of legislation that turned into law is a colossal failure. There were at least 2 occasions when the Democrats had a majority in the House and Senate with a sitting Democratic President. Rep. Eshoo could have passed any law in those 4 years out of 28. No excuses. Rep. Eshoo could have done a lot more. Anna’s missing accomplishments in the candidate statement is glaring. We looked through every candidate statement we could find. There is no talk about accomplishments, only a forward looking story.
• Rep. Eshoo is being disingenuous when she claims 45 bills. That is called “gaming the system for 28 years.” Do you see any hyperlinks to these 45 bills? She leads with Electronic Signatures legal binding digital documents from 1998. Nothing significant after that? I have talked to congressional reps and I have been told this, “The only bills that matter should be sponsored. No way 45 bills. Clear standard is bills is in your name”
• Rep. Eshoo’s issues with tainted money: Rep. Eshoo when asked about her PAC money, claimed, “my campaign money is needed for stamps and signs.” $785,700 is a lot of money for signs and stamps! The truth is her campaign funds were actually given away to Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) as ‘rent money’ to keep the chair position. If you follow this link, you will find $300k as “expenses” — donated to the DCCC.
• Rep. Eshoo worked 15 years on a pandemic plan, but failed to codify it. As the co-chair of the Biodefense Caucus, Rep. Eshoo did not hold a single meeting, even though pandemic was the agenda. You had the chance under President Obama to turn them into law as Democrats were a majority in the House and the Senate. But nope! Didn’t happen.
• But the story of her failures get sordid. Not addressing the people challenges, but harming the people’s interests
• #1 Recipient of Pharma money in the U.S House of Representatives, while chairing the House Health Subcommittee and has sponsored legislation that increases the price of our healthcare. Don’t believe this? Read the original 3rd party sources link here.
• Rep. Eshoo is the chair of the House Health Subcommittee- but did not hold any hearings on the opioid crisis. 700,000 Americans died in 20 years. A travesty
• Out of touch: Rep. Eshoo has been disengaged and did not take any action with the California fires, with the pandemic, with Silicon Valley tech, with our housing and traffic. She wasn’t aware of the people-data harvesting by Facebook. Rep. Eshoo demonstrated no empathy at the Calfire hearing. Showed up for a photo opp, and demonstrated ignorance about everything, including California using inmates for fire fighting.

Rep. Eshoo has not kept up with the times — she first ran for Congress in 1988. She prefers to hold tele-conference calls. Here is what happened when Rep. Eshoo decided to hold a face to face town hall meeting. Rep. Ro Khanna has done many face to face town hall meetings. Rep. Eshoo does tele-conference calls. The questions are orchestrated. The controversial questions are not asked. And when she does hold face to face town hall meetings, the activists show up and ask her the tough questions. Rep. Eshoo has been out of touch with California Fires, with Privacy violations by Facebook.

Lots of dribbling, but no goals to score: This is what Silicon Valley residents have been talking about. Her weekly updates have been about, “I voted for this, I sent this letter,” but the accomplishments and results have been missing for 28 years.

My run seeks to bring ethical integrity into politics by NEVER accepting PAC money or Special Interest Group money. I bring a result-driven outcome to challenge the Washington status quo and divisive partisan politics. America is ready for a new leadership.

It is time for change. I will serve with integrity, honor and energy.