BY FRANK PARLATO
Susan Ellen “Zoe” Lofgren, the incumbent in California’s 18th district, is perhaps the quintessential representation of the current state of Congress. She has served in Congress since 1995. For the 2022 election, her district underwent changes that impacted a significant portion of her longstanding constituents, particularly those in the tech industry, and now includes a majority Latino population.
The motive behind this redistricting remains uncertain, although some observers believe it may contribute to the the tech industry’s long-desired gentrification of specific areas near San Jose, which were previously outside Lofgren’s district.
With Lofgren’s influential position, she can facilitate the expansion of housing needed for the growing ‘Big Tech’ industry into the newly modified areas of the 18th District. This expansion, driven by high-paying tech jobs, has the potential to enhance real estate values in the district’s neighborhoods after older housing structures are acquired and demolished for new development.
Despite the significant district changes, Lofgren is widely considered unbeatable. As the number two leader in the California Democratic Party, following Nancy Pelosi, she enjoys confidence that the Latino population, unlikely to participate in the crucial March primary, will predominantly vote for the Democratic candidate in the general election.
Politics is Lofgren’s Specialty
Lofgren overwhelmingly defeated her opponents in both the primary and general election in 2022. However, to ensure victory, the party strategically supported a Latino candidate, Luis Acevedo-Arreguin, to split the Latino vote.
Peter Hernandez ran as a Republican. He received 31.3% of the votes, while Acevedo-Arreguin, a Democrat, split the Latino vote with 12.6%, guaranteeing a convincing win for Lofgren in the general election – when she faced only the Republican Hernandez. Only 19% of the district’s voters are enrolled Republican.
Lofgren’s objective is to ensure that no Democrat outperforms the Republican in the primary.
In this year’s primary, she faces a rematch against Hernandez and a significant challenge from Democrat Charlene Concepción Nijmeh in the primary. Nijmeh might win an upset if Latinos go to the polls in large numbers.
Lofgren supporters wisely found several “shill” candidates to run on the Democrat line to dilute the anti-Lofgren vote among registered Democrats. These candidates are not campaigning, are widely thought to have permitted the Lofgren team to use their names on the ballot to siphon votes from Nijmeh.
Big Tech and Big Pharma Are Key
Lofgren’s key priority is facilitating Big Tech’s expansion and focusing on helping Big Pharma provide Americans with a wide range of necessary medications – including assisting children in getting vital transgender drugs and surgery when they are ready.
Additionally, she supports the Prosecution-to-Prison industry to ensure the safety of the country, particularly against disproportionate crime rates among Hispanic and Black males.
Statistical data shows that 34.6% of federal offenders in prison are Black, 31.8% are Hispanic, and 29.5% are White. Lofgren employs policies such as empowering prosecutors to minimize trials, expedite sentencing advocacy, and passing legislation to extend incarceration terms beyond state penalties for similar offenses.
Zoe Lofgren knows it is no joke that affluent Big Tech employees do not want to move in an area because they fear that the neighborhoods might not have the right kind of residents.
Supporters contend Lofgren surpasses any living American in terms of effectively empowering the culture of resolution-by-plea deals, which justice advocates say result in longer sentences for Black and Latino criminals. Furthermore, her alignment with tech-related policies, including opposition to net neutrality and support for digital surveillance, is particularly noteworthy given her District’s location in Silicon Valley.
Muwekma Ohlone Tribe Sacrifices for Lofgren
Lofgren won her first election to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1994 via a six-way Democratic primary, and has since consistently secured reelection in a district known as a Democratic stronghold.
Lofgren’s initial congressional campaign received significant support from the Muwekma Ohlone Tribe, with expectations that she would help them regain federal recognition. However, after her election, it became apparent that blocking Muwekma Ohlone’s federal recognition would benefit her campaign far more than the Muwekma Ohlone could ever hope to if she supported them once she got elected.
Other tribes who operate casinos sought to prevent Muwekma Ohlone from running a casino, and offered generous incentives to Lofgren’s Democratic Party, provided that party leaders like Pelosi and Lofgren ensured that gaming tribes faced no competition from the industrious Muwekma Ohlone.
While this decision to change her position on affirming the Tribe’s federal status, Lofgren knows that donations are essential to keep her in office so she can continue serving her donors. If she had not supported the tribal casino operators, they might have donated to another candidate that might defeat her – and in Congress campaigns are every two years.
Working for the Congresswoman’s Best Interest
During her career, Lofgren faced scrutiny for directing approximately $350,000 of her campaign money to her husband’s businesses. This has raised concerns about the appropriate use of campaign funds. However, Lofgren felt many donors would be pleased to know that their campaign contributions helped her and her husband enjoy a better lifestyle.
Her involvement in the House Judiciary Committee has occasionally been controversial. She co-sponsored the Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act in 2007, which received criticism for potentially infringing on freedom of thought. In 2016, she came under fire for referring to a witness as an “ignorant bigot” during a House Judiciary Committee hearing, prompting questions about her professionalism and demeanor within a congressional setting.
Big Tech Has Needs Too
Regarding policy, Lofgren staunchly advocates for the interests of the tech industry, opposing antitrust measures against major tech companies. Her resistance to the Merger Filing Fee Modernization Act of 2021, designed to address anti-competitive behavior within corporations, is a testament to her loyalty to Big Tech and her reluctance to support efforts to regulate it.
Some have alleged that her daughter’s employment at Google may influence her stance on antitrust measures. She labeled it an unfair attack on her as a mother. Lofgren understands that her actions in supporting Big Tech will improve her daughter’s financial well-being and career opportunities in an industry she receives donations from and regulates.
It is no secret that her daughter’s employment is directly tied to the mother’s position in Congress. This year more than ever Lofgren needs support, for if she were defeated, her daughter’s job might be terminated.
At the same time, her husband’s law practice in real estate development accrues the family huge payments from developers and real estate interests that lust for the contrinued gentrification of the Latino community from San Jose. Lofgren, whose district now encompasses Latino neighborhoods that are most at risk of gentrification, Lofgren will be in a position to speed the acquisition of land in Latino neighborhoods for new tech worker housing that will be unaffordable to all others.
Lofgren has consistently remained loyal to her donors, and in turn, they have remained faithful, successfully securing her reelection 15 times.
But with the recent changes in her district, Lofgren must now rely on the support of the Latino community as well. However, some of her positions on social issues are cause for concern among Latino voters, who tend to be Catholic and more culturally conservative than Lofgren’s longtime constituency prior to redistricting.
Giving Power to Children to Determine Their Future
Lofgren has worked to prevent parents from denying their children the ability to embrace the gender identity of their choosing. Lofgren recognizes that traditional Catholic Latino parents may oppose their teenagers and preteens making gender transitions, attempting to hinder hormone therapy or sex-altering surgeries, but she understands that if these physical changes are not pursued during pre-puberty or shortly after puberty, individuals born in the wrong-gendered body may experience difficulty aligning their physical appearance with their true gender identity.
It is unclear if Latinos will support measures that Lofgren sponsored to deny custody to parents who do not endorse a child’s access to gender surgeries.
Lofgren is not naive, however. She realizes that as she works to gentrify the district, these old-school Latinos will be driven out of the district with increasingly high rents, making way for more progressive liberal white voters who are open to new views on gender.
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Contact Frank with tips or for help.
Phone / Text: (305) 783-7083
Email: frankreport76@gmail.comFrank Parlato is an investigative journalist. His work has been cited in hundreds of news outlets, like The New York Times, The Daily Mail, VICE News, CBS News, Fox News, New York Post, New York Daily News, Oxygen, Rolling Stone, People Magazine, The Sun, The Times of London, CBS Inside Edition, among many others in all five continents. His work to expose and take down NXIVM is featured in books like “Captive” by Catherine Oxenberg, “Scarred” by Sarah Edmonson, “The Program” by Toni Natalie, and “NXIVM. La Secta Que Sedujo al Poder en México” by Juan Alberto Vasquez.
Parlato has been prominently featured on HBO’s docuseries “The Vow” and was the lead investigator and coordinating producer for Investigation Discovery’s “The Lost Women of NXIVM.” Parlato was also credited in the Starz docuseries “Seduced” for saving ‘slave’ women from being branded and escaping the sex-slave cult known as DOS. Additionally, Parlato’s coverage of the group OneTaste, starting in 2018, helped spark an FBI investigation, which led to indictments of two of its leaders in 2023.
Parlato appeared on the Nancy Grace Show, Beyond the Headlines with Gretchen Carlson, Dr. Oz, American Greed, Dateline NBC, and NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt, where Parlato conducted the first-ever interview with Keith Raniere after his arrest. This was ironic, as many credit Parlato as one of the primary architects of his arrest and the cratering of the cult he founded. Parlato is a consulting producer and appears in TNT’s The Heiress and the Sex Cult, which premiered on May 22, 2022. Most recently, he consulted and appeared on Tubi’s “Branded and Brainwashed: Inside NXIVM,” which aired January, 2023.
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