Thread by @timkmak

I went to House Intel Cmte Chairman Devin Nunes' district to report on the tightest race of his political life

His opponent Andrew Janz is within single digits in a district Nunes won by 35 pts last cycle. Janz raised $8 mil so far

npr.org/2018/10/29/660…

One criticism of Nunes has been that he hasn't been responsive to local concerns, while accruing a national profile on natsec issues irrelevant to the farming/ag heavy district he represents in Calif's Central Valley.

So I went to check it out:

npr.org/2018/10/29/660…

When NPR tried to visit his taxpayer-funded office in the most populated region of Nunes' district, it was closed and unstaffed at 2 p.m. on a weekday.

Phone calls go straight to voicemail. The only other office is more than 45 minutes away by car.

npr.org/2018/10/29/660…

"If you are a loyal constituent and/or a donor to [Nunes'] campaign, he's accessible... if as a regular constituent you want to go to his office and speak to somebody, a staffer in his office, it's very difficult"
-Lisa Bryant, a professor at Fresno State

npr.org/2018/10/29/660…

Meanwhile the Fresno Bee reports that Nunes does have events, just not to the public:

"Mystery Nunes event requires guests to submit to personal search, no cell phone photos"

fresnobee.com/news/politics-…

Nunes hasn't held a public event since 2016 elxn, and hasn't had a town hall in much longer than that.

Even staunch Nunes supporter Michael Der Manouel Jr. was critical of this:

"I think that public officials should be accessible to their constituents"
npr.org/2018/10/29/660…

Nunes has not directly engaged with his constituents -- except his donors and loyal supporters.

But he HAS created his own podcast series and even his own news website, The California Republican. (It hasn't published anything in a month)

npr.org/2018/10/29/660…

Nunes has even picked a fight with his local paper, the Fresno Bee, by producing HIS OWN MAGAZINE.

He put together a 40 page, glossy, professional looking magazine to condemn the Fresno Bee.

And I got a copy.

As you can see, Devin Nunes is accusing the Bees of drinking Kool-Aid on a sinking ship that also has communistic/socialistic sympathies.

It is not a light touch here.

Here is how Devin Nunes' campaign funded magazine treated a Freedom of Information Act request in regards to Nunes' wife, a public employee:

TULARE SCHOOL TARGETED BY L.A. MAN

Here's how Nunes' campaign magazine covered reporters daring to ask questions of his neighbors:

A whole page of Nunes' campaign funded glossy magazine is dedicated to printing tweets of a parody Twitter account called @DevinNunesMom

Here is Nunes' campaign magazine's take on the billboards in his district referencing Russia

The last 9 or so pages of Nunes' campaign magazine is reprints of Wall Street Journal, Washington Examiner and National Review opinion pieces supporting Nunes