Nunes “inept” and “subservient”

Nunes feels Russia probe blowback at home

California congressman raises dizzying amount for reelection campaign.

By DAVID SIDERS

Devin Nunes, the California congressman whose allegiance to Donald Trump has made him public enemy number one to many Democrats, is beginning to feel the heat back home.

His little-known challenger is awash in cash from across the country as a result of Nunes’ polarizing role in the investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election. An independent expenditure campaign has posted hostile billboards along Highway 99, the heavily traveled main road through Nunes’ Central Valley district.

On Wednesday, a report in the Fresno Bee linked Nunes to a winery that allegedly held a wild cocaine-and-prostitutes evening yacht cruise — a winery where the congressman is a part-owner.

Yet Nunes isn’t blinking. In response to the first real challenge of his career, the House Intelligence Committee chairman recently raised a dizzying $2.3 million in just over six weeks — nearly as much as he raised in his entire 2016 campaign.

He now holds more cash on hand — in excess of $5 million — than any other Republican House incumbent in California.

“It’s a lot to raise in six weeks, and it’s a lot in a district like his,” said Bill Whalen, a former speechwriter for Gov. Pete Wilson and a research fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution.

“That money, like real estate, goes a lot further in the Central Valley,” he said, noting that advertising is less expensive in the Central Valley than in California’s larger media markets.

Nearly $1.5 million of Nunes’ latest fundraising haul came from small, unitemized contributions, according to his pre-primary election FEC report, a sign of his emergence as a direct-mail fundraising powerhouse.

Where Nunes once cut a relatively low profile in Congress, during the Trump presidency he has rallied Republican activists around his efforts to delegitimize the Russia probe. The president showed his gratitude earlier this week, praising Nunes as a “very courageous man” — all of it stands to boost the congressman’s standing among the conservative grassroots and bring in more bucks.

The Californian’s fundraising strategy suffers from a low rate of return — in April and early May alone, Nunes spent more than $1.3 million on direct mail, in addition to renting email lists and hats and yard signs. But he is tapping into small-dollar donors both in his district and across the United States, and it’s enabling him to build a powerful small-donor list that could be of use in future campaigns and political endeavors.

While Trump and Nunes remain popular in a conservative-oriented district that the president carried by nearly 10 percentage points in 2016, Andrew Janz, a Fresno prosecutor, has emerged as one of the Democratic Party’s top online fundraisers among House candidates.

Janz has pivoted off the criticism of Nunes by the Fresno Bee, the dominant newspaper in the district, which has variously called Nunes “inept” and “subservient” to Trump.

“He certainly isn’t representing his Central Valley constituents or Californians, who care much more about health care, jobs and, yes, protecting Dreamers than about the latest conspiracy theory,” the editorial board wrote early this year. “Instead, he’s doing dirty work for House Republican leaders trying to protect President Donald Trump in the Russia investigation.”

Janz has raised more than $1.8 million to date — more than enough money to air TV ads ahead of the primary election — but he’s still been overwhelmed by Nunes’ recent fundraising. The Democrat raised $463,767 during the same six-week period and was left with less than $600,000 on hand.

Both are widely expected to advance from California’s June 5 top-two primary election to the general election in November. Nunes, who remains the odds-on favorite, appears to be stockpiling as a hedge against a potential Democratic surge in the fall.

“I’m still skeptical it’s going to be a competitive district,” said Rob Pyers of the California Target Book, which handicaps races in the state. “The fundamentals of that district are too Republican, I think, for any Democrat to make serious inroads.”