Planned Parenthood just endorsed Mike Honda for Congress. It’s nor surprising giving that Honda has been a strong supporter not just of the right to chose, but providing health care services to women.
What’s interesting is that his opponent, Ro Khanna, is on the Planned Parenthood Mar Monte Board of Directors.
Planned Parenthood did not have to endorse at all on this race. Truth be told, Honda is not going to turn against women’ healthcare out of spite if he didn’t get the endorsement and Planned Parenthood could use its political and financial capital better on other races.
But this may be an instance on which Khanna’s campaign team made a political miscalculation. Khanna has been using his position on the Board to pump up his progressive credentials. I don’t doubt for a second that he is committed to a woman’s right to chose, but his repeated boasting of his Planned Parenthood affiliation might have seemed opportunistic to the organization’s leadership.
Of course, it’s also possible that Planned Parenthood’s political leadership came to the same conclusion than I: Ro Khanna may be great, but he has no record. We have no idea what he’ll do if he’s actually elected. Talking the talk is one thing, walking the walk another one entirely. Mike Honda, on the other hand, is a solid Democrat who almost always votes the right way and stands up for the right things (though I’m still puzzled by his silence on Syria).
As a side note, I got wind that despite all of his anti-PAC rhetoric, Khanna attended the Silicon Valley Chamber of Commerce PAC BBQ last month. I’m sure it was just a photo opportunity – when you’re campaigning, you go to every public event there is – but going to a PAC fundraiser, when you are supposedly campaigning against PACs is also a mistake. In particular where said PAC has a nasty history of fighting a modest minimum wage increase.