GOP's Ricky Gill going after Rep. Jerry McNerney (D from East Bay, CA)

[alp227]

Source: SF Chronicle

San Joaquin County - Ricky Gill won't be old enough to serve in Congress until next year, but the 24-year-old Stockton resident already has raised $725,000, according to his campaign - more than nearly every other Republican candidate in the country not serving in the House.

Gill has never held elective office before. He's never even held a full-time job; he's currently in his final year of law school at UC Berkeley.

But the first-generation Indian American became one of the fundraising superstars of the campaign finance period that closed Saturday by tapping into networks of people connected to his parents - longtime San Joaquin County obstetricians - local farmers and the Indian American community.

That pile of cash and Gill's precocious political instincts have both national Democratic and Republican leaders predicting that the race to unseat three-term Rep. Jerry McNerney, D-Pleasanton, in a newly redrawn district stretching from eastern Contra Costa County to Stockton will be among the most closely watched in the country.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/10/17/MN3F1LHD2L.DTL&ao=all

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The top comment:

Ricky Gill has never held a job, his entire life has been given to him by his rich parents, one of the best colleges in the United States. How much of his college fees did he put up to go to Berkeley? Now he wants to buy his way into the United States Congress, now much of that $700K is coming from relatives and family friends still living India?

We have enough problems with government now, we do not need a rich kid, a spoiled rich kid attempting to buy a seat in the United States Congress. Mr. Gill has never worked a day in his life, he hope's that being a United States Congressman will give him job experience.

If you have trucks upon trucks of money the GOP wants you, forget about the middle-class or the working-class, the I can only find part-time employment people......the Gills of the world do not hear your voices. His nose is up there where the air is thin.

[Historic NY]

1. He's privileged doesn't know how the little people live or work, the RW

likes to push the trust fund issue with OWS this guy probably never did a chore in his life.

[msongs]

2. let's export more jobs to India. that'll make his family happy nt

[Arugula Latte]

3. Little snot. n/t

[ehrnst]

4. Good lord - first they try to prevent college student from voting, now they run one?

Are they even attempting to keep the sneers off their faces?

[Xithras]

5. I don't know if Gill will displace him, but McNerney is in a lot of trouble.

McNerney is from Pleasanton, which is no longer even IN the district he represents. In fact, it's a good 30 minute drive from his longtime home to the CLOSEST point of the district he represents, and almost an hour drive to Stockton, which is its center. There were plenty of people in the Valley who were alredy grumbling about McNerney not representing that part of his district, and the talking heads are already starting their campaign to convince people that McNerney is a "Bay Area carpetbagger" who didn't even live in the district until he relocated a few months ago to satisfy the legal residency requirements.

McNerney barely won last time around, when his district included the more liberal Alameda, Contra Costa, and Santa Clara counties. Those areas have now been carved away from the district, leaving only the more conservative Central Valley. The Valley has long been a bastion of Republicans and Blue Dogs, which puts the more liberal McNerney at a distinct disadvantage.

IMHO, Gill is the perfect Republican candidate to run against, because a lot of people won't take him seriously...which gives McNerney a decent chance. If the Republicans run a more serious candidate, the Democrats in the 9th should really find a local primary challenger, because it's fairly unlikely that McNerney will survive a really serious Republican challenge. Republican David Harmer, who only lost by a hair last time around, could easily defeat him this time (luckily, Harmer has said he has no interest in running this time around). If the Republicans find another candidate with some respected local credentials, the local Democratic party will need to do some serious soul searching over a primary challenge or risk losing the district entirely.