CA-17: The Mystery Volunteer

In January, Republican Vanila Singh entered the CA-17 race. I evaluated that entry in a blog post and concluded that a Republican in the race would make it likely that Democrat Ro Khanna wouldn't make top two since his only path to victory relies on Republican support. I did make the following recommendation suggestion:

Khanna's best hope is that there's at least one more Republican on the ballot. If you look at similar districts in 2012, like CA-27 or CA-38, you'll see that "some dude" Republicans will split the vote. I'm not advocating anything underhanded here but if Khanna wants to assure making top two, someone from his camp could call one of his big money tech executive supporters and that tech executive could find a registered Republican and get him on the ballot. Okay, I am suggesting something underhanded, but it's not like anyone from Khanna's camp reads this blog, is it?

What I was suggesting was underhanded and far-fetched. This blog isn't heavily read and surely the Khanna camp wasn't reading it. Yet, at the last minute, two unknown candidates, both with tech connections, entered the race. One of them was a Republican, while the other switched their affiliation when he decided to run for office. That candidate was kicked off the ballot for having insufficient signatures. The heretofore unknown Republican, Joel Vanlandingham, did have enough signatures. Fourteen of his 48 were submitted by someone who The San Jose Mercury News describes as a fervent Khanna supporter.. Khanna denies any involvement and the supporter isn't speaking to the press. Now there's nothing illegal about this and it doesn't violate election law, but as I said in January it is unethical.

Apparently I'm Ro Khanna's new campaign consultant.