Riverside County— the 10th most populous county in the U.S.— is also one of the fastest-growing. There are 6 members of Congress who represent part of Riverside County, Raul Ruiz (D), Norma Torres (D), Mark Takano (D), Young Kim (R), Ken Calvert (R), and Darrell Issa (R), although on Ruiz, Takano and Calvert have big enough shares of the county to be said to be Riverside County Representatives. Last cycle Brian Hawkins, a Republican pastor serving on the San Jacinto City Council challenged incumbent conservative Democrat Raul Ruiz, a pretty worthless New Dem member of Congress. Even though Ruiz spent $3,011,795 to Hawkins’ $528,852, Hawkins still did fairly well:
Ruiz- 87,641 (57.4%)
Hawkins- 65,101 (42.6%)
But it was in the 41st district, Ken Calvert’s, where the real action was. There, Democratic challenger Will Rollins nearly ousted the longtime garbage incumbent. Calvert spent $4,037,194 to Rollins’ 3,683,740 and the results showed how vulnerable Calvert is in the newly drawn seat (which has an R+7 partisan lean— from an R+13— and where Trump only beat Biden 49.7% to 48.6%).
Calvert- 123,869 (52.3%)
Rollins- 112,769 (47.7%)
Calvert deserves a vigorous challenge. He's one of the worst California members of Congress. Watch this Fox News exposé on his blatant corruption:
Most people expect Rollins to run against Calvert again, this time with real DCCC support. (Last time, disgracefully, they only spent $95 on the race, while the House Majority PAC spent nothing at all. The DCCC is not big on supporting gay candidates, just soliciting money from gay donors.) But a frequent candidate, Tim Sheridan jumped in early and this week Hawkins declared he’s running as well— but as a Democrat this time. Yes, he switched parties and now claims to be a Democrat. Needless to say, his current campaign website has no issues or positions page.
A couple of weeks ago, Rollins, who said he will be making up his mind in the next couple of weeks, told the Bay Area Reporter that Calvert “needs to be held accountable no matter who the nominee is for his hypocrisy and targeting Americans for just being who they are. He has not actually evolved in terms of LGBTQ rights; the only thing evolved was his calculus for political survival. As soon as he won, he went back to the same prejudice, new target.”
Last cycle, when the Desert Sun interviewed Ruiz and Hawkins, they came away believing Hawkins isn’t prepared for any elective office, let alone for Congtress. (They endorsed Ruiz.)
On many key issues, Ruiz’s cogent and almost clinical approach to problems and policymaking contrasts sharply with Hawkins’ uninformed and frequently incoherent positions.
For example, when our Editorial Board asked both men what they would do to ensure that the Southwest United States continues to have adequate water resources to support people, industry, and agriculture during this historic drought, Hawkins said, “we don’t have a water shortage” and noted “two-thirds of our country is surrounded by water.”
“Because we are shutting it off and controlling the flow of it, … it creates a demand and that causes a panic,” he said.
Huh?
Ruiz, in contrast, is living on planet Earth, acknowledging the obvious— “the reality is we have drought”— and speaking to nuanced aspects of the Colorado River Drought Contingency Plan and how he worked on specific language to lessen the impact of cuts on our agriculture and tourism industries and the Salton Sea. Ruiz also supported the recently passed Inflation Reduction Act, which includes billions for conservation and fallowing programs.
Of course, serving in Congress is not just about watching out for your own backyard. We entrust our representatives to make thoughtful decisions on national security and foreign policy, for example. In that case, Hawkins gives us grave concern.
For example, asked what he would do to ensure that another Jan. 6-type incident does not occur, Hawkins downplayed the violence and said: “Our nation was established by the Revolutionary War. We were established because of grievances. And if you are not willing to listen to the grievances of the people who elected you— every American who has a right to vote has a right to speak. We are politicizing the Jan. 6, we are making this all about the election right now, but at the end of the day to hide from any American, to shelter yourself in any room where you actually have people want to come and speak to you, I don’t have that kind of cowardice.”
In 2022, Hawkins ran as a Republican nut— carrying on about the Democrats’ “war on marriages” and being a little too in synch with the Kremlin line on Ukraine. Now he thinks he can run as a Democrat in the district next door. The Desert Sun also noted that Hawkins’ behavior “was duplicitous and disrespectful of all participants, and falls far below the standard of behavior we expect from an elected official, let alone a pastor. Hawkins is unfit to serve in Congress.” If he was unfit as a Republican, is he any less unfit now that he claims to be a Democrat?