Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) jumped into the governor’s race after the collapse of former Rep. Katie Porter (D-CA), who had been the frontrunner to that point.
Swalwell painted himself as being a fresh face with a clean record who could step in to save the state from Donald Trump.
After seeing some of Swalwell’s past resurface, I have to wonder who is going to save the state from Eric Swalwell?
Porter suffered a major meltdown on video twice, and she immediately started to collapse in polling. Swalwell saw an opportunity, and he took it.
When Swalwell announced, to me, it seemed like he was taking a shot at Newsom just as much as he was putting himself in the race.
He stated, “Someone who will bring prices down, lift wages up. And we can say that we’re the fourth-largest economy in the world, and we are, and I love to brag about that. But what does that mean if you can’t afford to live here?”
He continued, “So, I’ve been in these fights as a city council member up in Dublin, my hometown, as a prosecutor in Oakland, and taking on the most corrupt president ever in the U.S. Congress.”
This week, as tends to happen when you run for higher office, a hit piece came out against Swalwell that, quite frankly, I am stunned did not come out when he was running for president (unless it was being saved, figuring he never had a chance).
It revealed violent sex poems that Swalwell had written when he was in college.
One of the pieces was titled “Hungover From Burgundy,” which apparently details a night with a rather aggressive encounter with a young lady.
That aside, what I found far more interesting was his defense of convicted cop killer Mumia Abu-Jamal.
Swalwell, like many young activists of the time, called for the release of Abu-Jamal, something I take personally.
As I have written before, I grew up in Philadelphia, and this was a rather famous case at the time. I have a brother who is a retired Philadelphia Police Officer, and I still have high school friends on that police force. Abu-Jamal was convicted of murder, having stood over a Philadelphia cop and firing at him, including shooting Officer Daniel Faulkner in the face.
The case has been tried and appealed more times than I can count, with Abu-Jamal finally wearing prosecutors down to the point they took the death penalty off the table to get him to stop.
This man is a despicable human being, killing a police officer in cold blood, yet Swalwell, who has presidential dreams, called for his release. If that is not enough to get you to turn against him, I don’t know what will.
