Kevin McCarthy Draws Opponent - Central Valley Congressional Races Heat Up

Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy met in secret with rich oligarchs and political Elites to defeat Donald Trump.

(Bakersfield Californian)  -  A Tea Party rabble-rouser will challenge the House majority leader. Two Democrats will fight for a shot at another congressman. 

At 5 p.m. Friday, Kern County’s 2016 election picture was locked in place as the final filing deadline passed.

Ken Mettler
takes on McCarthy

The re-election campaign of Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Bakersfield, went from sleepy to intriguing this week when local conservative Republican and businessman Ken Mettler leapt back into the political world to challenge the House majority leader for his 23rd Congressional District seat.

Mettler joins Gerald Morris of Rosamond and Wendy Reed of Quartz Hill in Los Angeles County as a McCarthy challenger.

But the former Kern High School District trustee, who has made headlines as a candidate for Assembly and Kern County leader of the Proposition 8 battle against same-sex marriage, has the potential to rally outsider Republican voters.

And, in a year where Republican outsiders Ted Cruz and Donald Trump are energizing opposition voters, that could make for an interesting and amusing contest.

In a release announcing his candidacy, Mettler criticized McCarthy for supporting the $1.1 trillion Omnibus spending bill.

“I promise to fight a reckless Washington agenda that is bankrupting our government and saddling our children with a mountain of debt,” Mettler wrote.

Kevin McCarthy's 23rd Congressional District

GOP Congressman Valadao faces multiple Democrats

And let us not forget the 21st Congressional District where a pair of Democrats will challenge two-term incumbent Rep. David Valadao, R-Hanford. They are Bakersfield attorney Emilio Huerta, son of labor leader and civil rights activist Dolores Huerta, and Fowler Mayor Pro-Tem Daniel Parra.

The two have already scuffled, squabbling for the California Democratic Party endorsement and the money that would have come with it.

Parra outmanuevered Huerta, who entered the race in January, and seized the pre-endorsement. Huerta successfully challenged the pre-endorsement, sending it to a caucus vote at the Democratic Party convention in late February.

Parra won the caucus vote, but not by enough to block Huerta from gathering the signatures to send the matter to the convention floor on the final day.

Huerta collected nearly twice the needed signatures and succeeded in overturning Parra’s endorsement. But he missed a shot to claim the endorsement himself, leaving both men without formal Democratic Party support.

The big question that will come out of the scrum is whether either Democrat can challenge Valadao, who has twice claimed strong wins in the 21st District despite a more than 15-point voter registration advantage for Democrats.

Former Republican state Sen. and Assemblyman Phil Wyman is running a Quixotic campaign for U.S. Senate. California Attorney General Kamala Harris and Rep. Loretta Sanchez, both Democrats, are the leading candidates for the post.

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The 21st Congressional District of Rep. David Valadao, R-Hanford