Reelect Harder in Bay Area’s only competitive House race

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There are eight competitive congressional districts in California where the party of the winner in the Nov. 8 election is in doubt. Only one of those districts touches the Bay Area — just barely.

For about 11,700 registered voters in far east Contra Costa County who are appended to the Central Valley’s 9th Congressional District, their choice will help determine whether Democrats or Republicans control the House of Representatives.

Their options are Democrat Josh Harder, a politically moderate two-term congressman, and Republican Tom Patti, a conservative San Joaquin County supervisor who ducked our questions about key issues facing the nation today.

For voters, this shouldn’t be a close call. Harder, D-Tracy, from the fifth generation of a Central Valley farming family, deserves reelection. He has worked hard to protect valley jobs and agriculture while also advocating for addressing climate change, sensible gun control, accessible health care, protection of abortion rights and lowering of prescription drug costs.

As an example of his thoughtful policy approach, consider Harder’s proposed Future of Agricultural Resiliency and Modernization (FARM) Act, introduced in 2020, which would help farmers across the country more effectively fight climate change. It would provide $2.5 billion in funding to help farmers reduce greenhouse gas emissions; increase carbon sequestration; improve air, water and soil quality; and convert agriculture by-products to efficient uses. Many of those ideas ended up in the Inflation Reduction Act the Senate passed on Sunday.

While Harder witnessed firsthand and condemns the horrific Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, we have no idea whether Patti condones the insurrection nor whether he subscribes to Donald Trump’s lie that the election was stolen. We also have little idea where he stands on critical federal policy issues that concern most Californians today.

That’s because Patti isn’t talking. Despite our repeated calls, his campaign refused to make him available.

What we do know from the public record is that Patti has cited a debunked study questioning the effectiveness of masks in curbing the spread of COVID-19, said he has “yet to see” systemic racism in this country and would eliminate the U.S. Agriculture and Education departments. According to an independent investigator hired by San Joaquin County, Patti made derogatory comments about a county employee in part in retaliation for her complaint about him to human resources. His fellow supervisors declined to act on the report.

The 9th District is almost entirely compacted in San Joaquin County. But, to balance populations in congressional districts across the state, it also slips into Contra Costa to pick up the communities of Discovery Bay and Byron and a sliver of Brentwood.

Party registration is what makes the district so competitive. While Democrats outnumber Republicans by 43%-29%, voters with no party affiliation comprise 21% of the electorate, making the outcome anything but certain.

Indeed, while Harder came out ahead of Patti in the seven-way open primary,…