In today’s Sacramento Bee newspaper Dr. Bill Durston finally got some press coverage about his race against one of the most well-known California Republicans, Dan Lungren. You can decide whether it was a positive article or not, but one thing is for sure: Bill Durston is putting up a fight for this seat.
Part of Durston’s fight to “take back our government from the special interests that control it, and to restore government of, by, and for the people” is online. He has recently created a video that pieces together clips from a debate he had with Lungren in 2006 about corruption and a more recent ABC News segment in which Lungren is found to be taking luxury vacations paid for by special interests, despite House ethics laws which prohibit such trips. If that video gets you riled up about Lungren, please consider sending Durston some love on his ActBlue page.
Speaking of ethics issues and abuse of power, one of the reasons Durston is having to fight such an uphill battle against Lungren, who refuses to debate him this year, is the fact that Lungren is paying for much of his campaigning with taxpayer money. Lungren has three “town hall meetings” coming up in the district next week and he is promoting them with color advertisements in the Sacramento Bee (a quarter-page full-color ad appeared Aug. 4), automated mass phone calls, and a fancy color mailer touting his “energy plan” that went out to residents of the 3rd congressional district. In tiny text on the mailer is: “This mailing was prepared, published and mailed at taxpayer expense.” These town hall meetings are nothing more than campaign stops. It’s outrageous that Lungren’s campaign for re-election is being funded by taxpayers like you, me, and Bill Durston himself.