A continuation of the deceptive tactics we’ve seen since the primary
By Roberta Millstein
Last week, a Davisite reader sent me two versions of the same “Eric Jones for Congress” flyer that had been left at homes on her North Davis street on the same day. The one she received seems clearly pitched to Democrats; the other one, which she found near her driveway, is strikingly different and seems instead to be pitched to Republicans, which some of her neighbors on her block are. [1] To paraphrase her reaction, “How stupid does Eric Jones think we are?”
Now to be clear, this is not the first time we have seen this sort of behavior from the Eric Jones campaign. After months of playing the progressive, e.g., with a mailer that touted his endorsement from Our Revolution and implied (falsely) that he had been endorsed by Bernie Sanders and Ro Khanna, he:
- stated that he was “ashamed” of Prop 50 and wanted to sunset federal programs if they failed review
- flip flopped on data centers to say that he wanted a CA moratorium on them, after having said that he wanted no state control of data centers earlier in the campaign
- made a maximized donation to a Republican member of the Bush family over a progressive Democrat running for governor in Maine
But this does seem like a new low, pandering to Democrats and Republicans alike, trying to be everything to everybody, while still ridiculously claiming to be against PACs and special interests — even though his former Silicon Valley Dragoneer Investment Group colleagues and associates have dumped millions of dollars into his campaign via direct donations and a Super PAC. And he is still trying to tout his health care experience as being good for employees and patients, when the evidence shows otherwise.
Why do I say that these flyers are pandering?
The Republican version at the top of the page has a number of GOP talking points that give it away. Secure border (that phrase appears twice) and immigration reform. Securing us from foreign adversaries through energy independence. Reducing taxes. End “foolish talk” of defunding the police. None of these talking points appear on the Democratic version, although there he does mention progressive-friendly Medicare expansion (albeit not Medicare for All) and free generic prescription drugs. Neither of those talking points appear on the Republican version, however.
Here’s something that both versions of the flyer do say: “No political games.” Giving Republicans a Republican-friendly flyer and Democrats a Democratic-friendly version doesn’t count as a political game? Hrrmm, certainly seems like one to me.
Now maybe some Republicans will read this and think, hey, the things he promises on the flyer geared to me sound pretty good! And maybe some Democrats will think likewise — although I would think that some of the Republican-geared language would give many Democrats pause.
But folks, we are getting played. His previous flip-flopping showed that, and these two flyers show it even more. If he was aboveboard, he would give the same flyer to everybody. He would let everyone know where he stood on important issues of the day. He would not try to be two different people.
I think my fellow Davisite had it right. How stupid does he think we are? How many underhanded tactics — how much misleading advertising will it take — before we recognize that this candidate would not represent the interests of ordinary citizens on the left or the right, only the interests of his broligarch tech donors?
You can expect that “promise” about data centers to be the first thing to go.
[1] An aside: I did not receive either of these flyers, and no more USPS mailers have arrived at my home either. Apparently my articles revealing his misleading messaging and problematic background have made me a persona non grata with the campaign.
Davisite 
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