Eric Swalwell sounds like a creep, but what took him down is bad polling, not morals and ethics.
The seven-term California congressman announced over the weekend he is suspending his gubernatorial campaign to become the next Golden State governor. That’s because women – lots of them – are telling their personal stories of sexual harassment going back years.
The sick truth is those stories about him were known and whispered for years, as far back as 13 years when he was a city council member, but his downfall came only he wasn't useful to his party anymore.
To better understand what happened to Swalwell, a March 10 story at the L.A. Times helps fill in the back story. It describes how the California Democratic Party, growing nervous over the primary, planned to spend “hundreds of thousands” of dollars to poll California voters on their favored candidate in the coming weeks.
The purpose of the poll, the Democratic Party openly said, was to convince the trailing, little-known candidates to drop out of the race and off the final ballot. Doing so would give the top Democrats, eight in all, a better chance at defeating the top two Republicans, Steve Hilton and Mike Bianco.
What did the expensive polling show? In a follow-up story to the polling, published March 27, The Desert Sun newspaper reported the polling showed Hilton leading at 16% trailed by Bianco at 14%.
Where were the leading, big-name Democrats? They’re far back there – Swalwell, Katie Porter, and Tom Steyer – who were polling at 10% each.
With that shocking polling in their hands, imagine the conversation at the Democrat headquarters over a future in which two Republican candidates could win the primary with a Democrat – in California! – trailing behind both GOP candidates in third place.
“We can’t let the Nazis win!” they probably told each other, so the political knives came out to thin the Democratic herd.
One knifing suspect is Katie Porter, the former congresswoman, who is expected to increase her chances in the June primary with Swalwell out.
Another possible suspect is gubernatorial candidate Matt Mahan, the San Jose mayor. Jennifer Van Laar, a California-based investigative reporter at RedState, has connected the Swalwell allegations to him.
But let’s stop right there. Swalwell dropping out is not the real story.
The real story, which goes back generations, is that Swalwell’s situation pulls back the curtain on Washington, D.C. It is a city of unimaginable power and uncontainable egos, dirty backroom deals and backstabbing double-crosses.
When you see all those lawmakers running to a camera to say they’re surprised and disappointed in Swalwell, remember their taxpayer-funded program has paid out $18 million to quietly settle 250-plus sexual harassment settlements over 20 years.
That program is evidence Washington operates on money and power, but you and me are the dupes who say, "Surely my congressman is the one guy up there who's squeaky clean."
Swalwell is another lesson about how it really works, but we never seem to learn the lesson.
Notice: This column is printed with permission. Opinion pieces published by AFN.net are the sole responsibility of the article's author(s), or of the person(s) or organization(s) quoted therein, and do not necessarily represent those of the staff or management of, or advertisers who support the American Family News Network, AFN.net, our parent organization or its other affiliates.
