Politics & Government

PHOTOS: Dr. Ami Bera Courts Silicon Valley in Quest to Best Dan Lungren

Well-connected Demo fundraiser Kavita Tankha hosts a party for 175 people in Los Altos Hills, where many Indian-Americans came to see U.S. Rep Mike Honda introduce the contender from Elk Grove.

They came for different reasons. Some came because they were Democrats. Some came because they were Indian-Americans. And some came because they wanted to see Congressman Mike Honda (D-San Jose).

But they all had one thing in common: They'd come to check out Dr. Ami Bera because of Kavita Tankha. 

The Los Altos Hills attorney has hosted several candidate fundraisers in recent years at her home, leveraging a large network of friends and acquaintances in the Bay Area. This weekend, it was Dr. Bera's turn.

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Bera, from Elk Grove, is running to unseat U.S. Rep Dan Lungren (R-Gold River). In 2010, a romp for Republicans across the country, Bera came within stone-skipping distance of Lungren, with 42 percent of the vote to Lungren's 50 percent.

Honda, introducing Bera, harked back to the first Asian American ever elected to Congress—Dalip Singh Saund, a Democrat from the 29th District who served from 1957 to 1963. But that was more than 50 years ago.

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"It's not about getting a new one, it's about getting another one,"  Honda said. "Make Congress look like America."

With the redistricting maps released on July 28, what was the 3rd Congressional District in California would become the 7th Congressional District, if the maps hold by the Aug. 15 finalization. The district would become more Democratic, giving Bera an advantage in a rematch.

Bera, fomerly the chief medical officer for Sacramento County, and most recently the associate dean for admissions for University of California-Davis Medical School, spoke about his ideas, including how Medicare could be fixed. It would require courage to fight the battles, he said.

The events of the past few weeks in Washington in the protracted —and ultimtely frustrating— fight over the debt ceiling, was not encouraging, he said.

"That's not what you do in Silicon Valley," he said. "You don't run away.

"You engage the challenge, you look at it, analyze it, you create partnerships and you say, 'OK let's go forward and let's address the challenge.'"

Mukesh Ahuja said he found resonance in what Bera said about the frustration with Washington, because many people are upset with what happened.

"People who don't travel outside the United States perhaps don't pay much attention to the debt ceiling debate, and think 'Life goes on,'" said the Los Altos entrepreneur. Not people like himself, he said. And certainly not the people who look at the U.S. as an investment.

"If you're sitting in China, you say, 'What the heck? I want to buy your debt but this is not so cool.'"

The proof, he said, was in the pudding, with the downgrading of America's credit rating by Standard & Poors recently.


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