By Guy Kovner With name recognition, legislative history, big-money backing and opponents that lack established political records, Democratic Congressmen Mike Thompson of St. Helena and Jared Huffman of San Rafael are virtually assured of re-election next week. The drama on election night, in a midterm election generally lacking in sizzle, lies in how much, if any, of their 17-seat House minority the Democrats can pick up by defending vulnerable incumbents and winning toss-up races, conditions that do not apply to the two Democrat-safe congressional districts that include parts of Sonoma County. But political parties rarely make gains in their president's second midterm election, which tends to bring out older, white, rural voters who are "pretty angry," said David McCuan, a Sonoma State University political scientist. Two issues that have emerged in the last few months -- the Ebola health threat and the Islamic State's violent spread through Syria and Iraq -- have added to an already volatile election landscape, he said. Dissatisfaction with President Barack Obama's six years in office further dims Democratic prospects. Many analysts expect the Republicans' House majority to swell. McCuan said his forecast ranges from a net gain of at least six GOP seats -- boosting the party's majority to 23 -- to a net gain of 27 seats, giving Republicans 260 of the House's 435 seats. That number would far exceed a Republican campaign, announced in May, called "Drive to 245," targeting a net gain of 12 seats. The "most likely scenario," McCuan said, is a GOP gain of 10 to 15 seats. "That's huge," he said, but noted that the average midterm loss for the incumbent political party from 1934 to 2010 is 37.7 seats. Democrats captured the most recent supermajority by winning 295 House seats, a net gain of 36, during Lyndon Johnson's presidential landslide victory over Barry Goldwater in 1964. The incumbents Thompson, 63, an eight-term House veteran and former California state senator who has never lost an election, is running in the 5th Congressional District, which includes Santa Rosa, Rohnert Park, Cotati and Sonoma Valley, all of Napa County and parts of Lake, Solano and Contra Costa counties. A Democratic Party rainmaker known for his fundraising prowess, Thompson has collected nearly $1.7 million in his bid for a ninth House term. He captured 80 percent of the vote in the June primary, and faces a political newcomer with no party preference, James Hinton, 40, of Napa in the run-off mandated by California's top-two primary system. Huffman, 50, who won the House seat vacated by former Democratic Rep. Lynn Woolsey in 2012, raised nearly $975,000 in his first re-election campaign and took 68 percent of the June primary vote. His opponent, supermarket cashier Dale Mensing, 56, of Garberville, is the only Republican competing in the two congressional races. The 2nd Congressional District stretches from Marin County to the Oregon border. Democrats account for about half of the registered voters in both districts, with Republicans and no party preference voters splitting most of the rest. Thompson and Huffman agree that Democrats will not win a majority this year, but Thompson is more sanguine about the party's prospects. "I think we're going to have some success in gaining seats," he said, without citing a number. Huffman acknowledged the likelihood of Republican gains, noting that Democrats are defending seats the party won in swing districts in 2012, a presidential election year that drew high voter turnout which typically benefits Democrats. Low turnout expected Turnout on Nov. 4 will likely be low, and Obama's popularity is tanking, Huffman said. "If we can hold our losses to single digits we'd be doing well," he said. "Five or less would be great." Political analyst Larry Sabato's latest "Crystal Ball" prediction called for a Republican gain of six to nine seats. Thompson said he's been raising money for five Californians among the 27 House members who are beneficiaries of the Democrats' Frontline program, aiding incumbents in competitive districts: Ami Bera of Elk Grove, Julia Brownley of Westlake Village, Lois Capps of Santa Barbara, Scott Peters of San Diego and Raul Ruiz of Coachella. Bera, a physician who upset Republican Dan Lungren, a former California attorney general, in 2012, is locked in one of the most competitive -- and expensive -- congressional races this year against Doug Ose, who retired from Congress in 2005 and is attempting a comeback. Bera has raised $3.5 million and Ose $2.4 million, while spending by outside groups in the race exceeds $9.5 million, including more than $2.4 million in the last week alone, according to OpenSecrets.org, an independent nonprofit that tracks campaign spending. By contrast, outside spending for both Huffman and Thompson is an identical $86, with $76 from the California Teachers Association and $10 from the Sierra Club. Thompson is also helping other Democrats on the Frontline list who co-sponsored his bill to extend background checks for firearms sales, a measure Republican leaders have declined to bring to a floor vote. Huffman, a former environmental attorney, said he's been boosting green-minded Democrats who are strong on climate change and energy issues. "I need help," he said. "I've got to start building a more climate-friendly House." Thompson said he wants to address rebuilding infrastructure, job creation, renewable energy development and making education more affordable. Neither those nor any other Democratic initiatives will go far until the party regains control of the House. That could happen in 2016, McCuan said, when the party's prospects will be boosted by the presidential campaign. It is even more likely in 2018, given demographic and political shifts that favor Democrats. Democrats are pursuing a "two-inning strategy," Huffman said, hoping to hold as much ground as possible this year then rally in 2016 behind presumed presidential nominee Hillary Clinton and a continued economic recovery. Challengers optimistic The two local challengers, Mensing and Hinton, said they are optimistic in the face of long odds. Neither filed a campaign finance report, required when contributions or expenditures exceed $5,000. Mensing, a registered Democrat until switching to the GOP in 2009, claimed his chances are "pretty good." He's campaigned on the streets, talking to people in four or five visits to both Sonoma and Marin counties, where nearly two-thirds of the 2nd District's voters live. "I let them know I'm battling for freedom," Mensing said. "I am contrary to the system, and the system is failing." Asked if he supports the House Republican leaders' strategy of bottling up legislation, Mensing said that Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid does the same thing and that it's "not necessarily a positive thing to pass more laws." Mensing said he expects to garner Republican support and votes from Democrats who "value their gun rights" and are opposed to Obamacare. Hinton's platform is based on economic measures that he said are based on "making everyone pay their fair share." "Look out Wall Street," said Hinton, a former cash game and online poker player who advocates a 1 percent tax on Wall Street transactions, including stocks, bonds and derivatives, exceeding $4 million a year. Hinton's economic proposals also call for substantial increases in federal tax deductions for families, a 15 percent tariff on all imported goods and federal refinancing of all student loan debt to zero percent interest. A medical marijuana patient who uses cannabis to relieve his psoriatic arthritis, Hinton advocates removing the federal prohibition on medical marijuana and a national single-payer health care system. To shore up Social Security, he backs the idea of raising or removing the payroll tax cap, currently set at $117,000. Hinton, a political newcomer, said he has learned a lot and developed a network during his campaign and will challenge Thompson again in 2016. "This is a test run," he said. "It wasn't win or go home."

By Dale K. Mensing Greetings, friends. My name is Dale K. Mensing. I seek to represent California's Second District in the United States House of Representatives. I have been told that Common Core will be implemented in Humboldt County this September. Common Core State Standards Initiative is federal domination of education. I see two primary forces behind Common Core. The first force is a small, very wealthy group of people who realized that they could make money exploiting the existence of the second force. The second force is the Federal Government's decades long desire to mold and control the people by molding and controlling education. Through Common Core, these two forces found that their marriage could get them what they both want. Money and influence go to the first force. The second force receives advancement toward their goal of implementing social engineering. Where did Common Core come from? It came from Bill Gates. In May of 2009, The Hunt Institute for Educational Leadership received 2.2 billion dollars from Gates for the purpose of getting Common Core rolling. And roll it did. By March 2009 President Obama had a bribe ready for the States: accept Common Core and you can have millions of taxpayer dollars . It is convenient for Bill Gates that he loves the idea of social engineering and that he has the influence (money) to facilitate a grand scheme to become the grand government education crony . His ilk will publish 80% of the textbooks and "provide" all of the computers (each student will have one). Those who assert the goodness of Common Core avoid the fact that no one asked any of us whether or not we wanted to have a fundamental change in our approach to education. Why should they actually ask you what your opinion might be of how or what your children will be taught? At the time that it was forced down our throats as an "initiative," no one had even yet read it. In fact it had not yet even been written. It works like this: first, the Federal Government over-taxes the citizens. Then, acting contrary to the 10th Amendment, the Feds offer billions back to the States. The 2009 offer was called, "Race to the Top." In order to receive "Race to the Top" funds, the States had to agree to implement Common Core when it would eventually be written. California did indeed actually agree to implement something that had not yet been written. The thing was eventually written as standards which eventuated tests which eventuated curriculum. I have been objecting to Common Core because it embodies an objectification of our State's students. Bill Gates has made it clear that he sees Common Core as a way to money: "it will unleash a powerful market of people providing services for better teaching." Yes, a "market." That is definitive objectification. The curriculum is sectarian. The monitoring of the students is overtly Orwellian. The federal purpose of Common Core is to arrange students to be able to participate in an arranged global production system (outcomes/performance based education) reflecting the "U.S.-- USSR Education Exchange Agreement." Common Core standards and tactics are an effort to eliminate the American spirit of courageous individuality, free thinking and vibrant self-determination. Our schools need to teach with the purpose of helping students understand and achieve their inherent roll in the working out of Liberty. As your Congressman, I will work to thwart Common Core as it violates these three Federal laws prohibiting any federal direction of curriculum for grades K-12: General Education Provisions Act (20 USC paragraph 1232a), Department of Education Organization Act (20 USC paragraph 3403(b), Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 as amended by the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (20 USC 7907(a). I encourage you to join me. Dale K. Mensing, Candidate for Congress, 2nd District, California

My name is Dale K. Mensing. I am a working man. I am running for Congress for the purpose of defending the integrity of the Bill of Rights. The past twenty years or so have brought to my ears the repeated exclamation that, "We just have to accept the fact that the Bill of Rightsjust isn't real for us anymore." Well, the Bill of Rights is very real for me. I will defend that reality by exposing attacks on freedom. All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for enough good people to do nothing. The purpose of the 20,000 page Affordable Care Act is for it to serve as a foundation for the fundamental transformation of the United States. The ACA is a foundation for transformation because it is a setting for attacking the freedom of religion, the right to privacy, and the rightnot to be objectified by the government. Freedom of religion is being attacked because millions of citizens embrace a spiritual sanctification which requires separation from any system that even appears to endorse contraception and or abortion. The right to privacy is being attacked because, within the ACA, there is a non-HIPAA compliant statement in a "hidden source code" which states, "You have no reasonable expectation of privacy regarding any communication of any data transmitted or stored in this information system." Let me assure you that every diminishing of your privacy is a diminishing of your freedom. We are being objectified as our right to the freedom of self-determination is being systematically challenged. We are being told to sign up and purchase a product that is designed for the purpose of our subjugation. Article I, Section 8 of the constitution makes it clear that laws should be "necessary and proper." Attacking freedom under the guise of providing help is anything but necessary and proper. It has been said, "Control health care and you control the people." As your Congressman, I will work to achieve a constitutional answer to our health care troubles. To begin with, we need to put the patient first. This means that the ACA needs to be revoked. We must be aware that a primary author of the ACA, Robert Creamer, is a radical communist criminal who espouses systems of deceit to gain public acceptance of the law. Deceiving the public is the opposite of putting the patient first. Voting to approve a law without reading it is not a way of putting the patient first, either. And, putting the patient first means putting the whole patient first, including their religious faith. Of course, we need to guarantee entitlements already provided in MediCare. We should consider providing different approaches for different types of people: Something akin to a health savings account for those who could best benefit from that approach. We need plans that encouragerather than discourage doctors to serve in rural and remote communities. Also, finding a way to evolve away from absolute Federal oversight of health care would certainly be in the best interest of the patient. The people of Northern California certainly know what to do for the people of northern California far better than Washington D.C. Knows what to do for the people of Northern California. I know that exemplary health care and truth must co-reside. I respectfully encourage the reader to attend a fund raising rally at the Garberville Vets Hall on Friday, July 18th at 7:00 PM.