District-shopper Ro Khanna (CA17) is really going all out

[KamaAina]

Khanna is a Dem running to unseat longtime Dem Rep. Mike Honda, one of the most liberal members of Congress. This is made possible by California's new electoral system, in which all candidates of all parties face off in the June election and the top two move on to November. CA17 is Blue enough that the top two finishers with both likely be Dems.

More on the race: http://www.democraticunderground.com/1251355997

http://www.mercurynews.com/news/ci_25337824

Ro Khanna has knocked on 2,200 doors in his quest to unseat veteran Democratic Congressman Mike Honda and there's a good chance Khanna's campaign knows more about the voters who answer than they know about the candidate.

The former Obama administration official is bringing one of the president's most successful Silicon Valley-style campaign strategies home in what could be the first House campaign in the country using "big data" to target exactly whose doors are worth knocking on....

Call it what you want: "big data" analysis, "predictive modeling," "nanotargeting" or -- as some critics dub it -- "stalking." Whatever the name, it means gobbling up all the digital bread crumbs voters leave behind -- not just the party registrations and voting histories of old, but things like the Web pages they browse, the things they buy, the cars they drive and all they share about themselves on social media. The goal: to predict which voters are most likely to be swayed....

But data-crunching in 2012 found that high-voter-turnout Democrats are likelier to drive Subarus or Saabs, drink sauvignon blanc or gin, and eat at Red Lobster or Boston Market, while high-turnout Republicans are likelier to favor Volvos or Chryslers, cabernet sauvignon or Scotch, Outback Steakhouse or the Olive Garden.

Repukes like Olive Garden!! But half of Connecticut drives Volvos, and it's Blue.

[Newsjock]

1. More techno-libertarians trying to 'disrupt' politics

The Silicon Valley CEOs are having a sad because they have all those billions stashed away overseas, and the big bad U.S. gub'mint wants to actually tax them if they try to bring the money home where it should be.

They can't come right out and back actual tax-cut Republicans because of all their pesky social issues (like, y'know, the gays). So they put one of their own on the Democratic ticket and exploit the state's new primary system.

Khanna isn't even a DINO or a Blue Dog; he's a new kind of scary beast entirely.

[KamaAina]

2. You hit the nail right on the head

Now I know what's been bugging me about this guy since last cycle when he was threatening to do the same thing to Pete Stark over in the East Bay.