Lee Rogers Is Running For The House Seat Currently Occupied By Buck McKeon

After the closest call with political mortality of his life in 2012, Santa Clarita Republican Buck McKeon has told political allies that he won't run in 2014 if Lee Rogers challenges him again. Today he's getting the bad news: Rogers-- this time with the solid backing of the DCCC-- is running for the CA-25 seat. McKeon has promised the seat to Tony Strickland but Santa Clarita Mayor Bob Kellar, state Sen. Steve Knight, former Assemblyman Cameron Smythe, State Equalization Board chairman George Runner and Assemblyman Scott Wilk all agree that the seat isn't McKeon's to give away and that Tony Strickland, who ran against Julia Brownley last year, is a carpetbagger. This promises to be a very bloody primary-- at least on the Republican side.

Democrats in Santa Clarita, Simi Valley and the Antelope Valley have closed ranks behind Rogers, who has built a solid base of supporters, a network of donors and volunteers and a top notch campaign team to take on McKeon or whoever replaces him if he's too scared to face him again-- or too eager to go into the lobbying business his brother and nephew have already started for him.

Rogers, a nationally acclaimed surgeon and a recent national spokesman for the American Diabetes Association, has impressed district voters as a health care and patient advocate with the experience and know-how to reduce medical costs by making appropriate adjustments in the Affordable Care Act. Last year he was endorsed by Blue America and we're endorsing him again this year.

"I'm running for Congress, because I still believe that one person can make a difference. Nothing worthwhile comes easy. I could have done the easy thing and get back to my life being a doctor and treating patients who need me. But the district and the country also need me. Washington is constipated and it requires an enema. There is no progress. We demand improvements to the Affordable Care Act, passing universal criminal background checks for gun purchases, achieving comprehensive immigration reform by providing a reasonable path to citizenship for undocumented residents, getting out and staying out of wars in the Middle East, and preventing corporate money from influencing elections. I need your help to put progress back in Congress."

Rogers opposed the Sequestration which McKeon supported and which has held back economic growth. Rogers also opposes the Obama-Boehner scheme to cut Social Security benefits by messing with the cost-of-living adjustments, which McKeon supports. Here are a dozen important votes McKeon took since he was reelected that Rogers disagrees with (chronologically):

• H.R. 678- McKeon voted against requiring that when practicable, all materials used for conduit hydropower generation be manufactured in the United States
• H.R. 624- McKeon voted for CISPA, a Big Brother type domestic spying bill.
• McKeon also voted against a motion to make H.R. 624 less intrusive by prohibiting employers, prospective employers, or the Federal Government from requiring the disclosure of social networking or personal account passwords by an employee or job applicant without a court order.
•H.R. 1406- McKeon voted to penalize workers who receive overtime pay for overtime work.
•H.R. 807- McKeon voted to prioritize payments to China, Saudi Arabia and wealthy bondholders if the Republicans decide to stop funding the government.
• H.R.3- McKeon voted to approve building the Keystone XL Pipeline would will bring toxic tar sands into the U.S. from Canada so it can be trans-shipped to China
• H.R. 1911- McKeon voted to double the cost of student loan rates-- starting today!
• H.R. 1960- McKeon voted against giving the victim of sexual abuse in the military the power to choose whether to allow the Office of Chief Prosecutor to make the binding decision on whether a case goes to trial, or to allow the commander to proceed with the case.
• H.R. 1797 McKeon voted to make it illegal for a woman and her physician to go through with an abortion after 20 weeks.
• H.R. 1947- McKeon voted over and over to cut the food stamps program.
• H.R. 1613- Mckeon voted against allowing California to decide on its own whether or not to allow offshore drilling for oil.

• And, of course, McKeon and Rogers have a basic disagreement over the Affordable Care Act. Rogers sees a flawed bill that needs to be fixed and made better. McKeon voted 37 times to just repeal it, even though it is already saving Californians hundreds of millions of dollars in health care costs.

"We can't let crazy extremist social policies, like limiting a woman's right to make healthcare choices with her doctor, rule the day," Rogers told me yesterday. "If you want someone to go to Washington and stick up for our values, to fight for individual freedoms, and to prioritize challenges faced by our country, I'm your guy!" We know that... please consider being a first-day-supporter, right here.