Rep. Zoe Lofgren, who has sat in Congress since 1995 and now wants to stay sitting there for another two years, is attacking her main rival in California’s 18th district, Tribal Chairwoman Charlene Concepción Nijmeh as ‘a Republican’. But Nijmeh is a lifelong Democrat.
The South Bay Chronicle, an independent news publication that is being delivered door to door across the district, details Lofgren’s behavior in office, suspect votes, and financial backers – painting a picture of deep and pervasive corruption surrounding the Congresswoman.
In response to that publication – and seemingly shocked by the audacity of its very existence – Lofgren began to make a slew of confusing and sometimes nonsensical allegations against Nijmeh, whose insurgent candidacy is leading in private polling. In fact, Lofgren’s support is so weak among Democratic Party primary voters, that she has been barely polling at 22%.
First, Lofgren claimed that the newspaper required a ‘Paid for by’ disclosure statement. Lofgren must be ignorant of the law, because independent publications are not required to print such statements on journalism. In fact, the publication has no formal relationship with Nijmeh’s campaign, which is separate and distinct entity.
Lofgren has been unable to substantiate allegations that the newspaper is ‘fake’, which was the theme of her first knee-jerk response to discovering the existence of The South Bay Chronicle. Lofgren’s disdain for a free press is raising eyebrows. She has been no friend to the First Amendment in Congress, and is one of the principal architects of what many call “the Big Tech censorship industrial complex”.
Nijmeh recorded a video message on social media, confirming that she did not order the printing of the newspaper and that she did not pay for it. There is no evidence that The South Bay Chronicle is affiliated with or paid for by Nijmeh’s campaign, despite the congresswoman’s seemingly erratic allegations.
Lofgren alleges that The South Bay Chronicle was published by Matt Ricchiazzi, an independent journalist and publisher who, according to her, is working for Nijmeh’s campaign. Nijmeh says that there is no such connection. While Ricchiazzi works for Nijmeh’s foundation and other investment vehicles, he has no formal role with the campaign.
“Ms. Lofgren knows Matt Ricchiazzi very well. He has criticized her political activities long before my campaign began,” Charlene Nijmeh said in a public statement.
Ricchiazzi wrote a letter accusing Lofgren of trying to pressure public opinion through her long standing ties to major media outlets and executives in Silicon Valley – including The San Jose Spotlight, where Lofgren’s ties run deep.
“Why is she calling my little newspaper a ‘fake’ media outlet? Because it doesn’t have billionaire owner? The South Bay Chronicle is a real publication – more real than corporate media – that discusses real issues. And we have real reasons to be critical of our elected officials. Our criticism is not fake. I urge you to read the paper and judge it by its substance, not the politically motivated mischaracterizations,” Ricchiazzi explains.
“The South Bay Chronicle is an independent publication that upholds the tradition of a free press and American democracy, as we have known it for hundreds of years,” Ricchiazzi said. “Since the American revolution and all throughout the 1800s and 1900s, neighborhood newsprints have been the cornerstone of the public discourse. Any law seeking to curtail them would be flagrantly unconstitutional.”
Ricchiazzi argues that Lofgren’s actions are more proof of her authoritarian approach to disseminating information. She sends letters to voters urging them not to read the newspaper, rather than responding to the concerns about the region’s ruthless housing shortage, Big Tech’s exploitation of children for profit, and Lofgren’s attempt to eradicate the Muwekma Ohlone Tribe at the behest of casino tribes that see it as a competitive threat.
He says those are conversations that the corporate media refuses to cover, which necessitates independent journalism to fill those gaps.
The published information so frightened Lofgren that she enlisted other influential old gaurd Democrats in her coordinated smear – which appeared simultaneously in The San Francisco Chronicle and The San Jose Spotlight. Even Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi and Minority Leader Hakeem Jefferies waded into the race to denounce Nijmeh’s use of photos that they took with her at a party fundraising event and inside Pelosi’s office on Capitol Hill.
“The South Bay Chronicle critically covers Lofgren’s non-existent policy position on the federal government’s housing strategy. That she represents the most homeless city in America and she lacks a coherent position on the federal government’s housing strategy – during a national housing shortage – is a shocking failure of leadership,” Ricchiazzi explains. California’s housing shortage is a full-blown crisis and the state ranks number one in homelessness.
Many political observers say that Lofgren is trying to undermine the Muwekma Ohlone Tribe’s longstanding struggle to affirm its federal status, an effort that Nijmeh has reinvigorated during her tenure as Tribal Chairwoman. Lofgren claims that the Tribe has no right to claim its historic lands surrounding the San Francisco Bay and stretching to the San Joaquin Valley.
To undermine the Tribe’s efforts, Lofgren posits that the territory is in dispute with two other ‘tribes’: a group that calls itself ‘the Tamien Nation’, and another that calls itself the Association of Ramaytush Ohlone. Lofgren uses the organizations in rhetorical flourishes to paint Nijmeh as trying to strong arm other tribes.
But this couldn’t be farther from the truth. The so-called ‘Tamien Nation’ was founded a few years ago by a woman named Qurinia Geary. She had previously served as a Councilwoman on the Amah Mutsun Tribal Council. After she had a dispute with tribal leadership, she resigned and started her organization, which she calls ‘the Tamien Nation’. But it’s not a ‘nation’ or a ‘tribe’ in the way we think of Tribes. It’s not a sovereign government, like Muwekma. It’s an organization of one woman and her immediate family. She is not government, they don’t have a constitution, and they don’t have any territorial claims independent of their relationship with Amah Mutsun (which is a legitimate Tribal government that has sovereign claims).
The Association of Ramaytush Ohlone is an even more ludicrous situation. That organization was founded by an individual named Jonathan Cordero, whose ancestors claim him to be Chumash from the central coast – not Ohlone. They abhor his behavior, and think his claims to San Francisco are absurd. To substantiate his claims, he cites a single ancestor from the 1700s. That does not make him the ‘Ramaytush Nation’. Indeed, the word Ramaytush does not come from Cordero or any of his relatives. It was first used in 2009 in an ethno-historic study commissioned by the National Park Service.
While he continues to distribute disinformation with regard to Muwekma, Mr. Cordero has yet to provide any evidence that his direct ancestors were ever interviewed by anthropologists, historians, or Bureau of Indian Affairs officials at any point during the 20th century. He has yet to provide any evidence that his direct ancestors spoke any Ohlone language dialect during the 20th century; nor has he provided any evidence that his direct ancestors identified themselves as either Ramaytush or Ohlone on any documents during the 20th century.
Cordero has no evidence of any of his claims. He expects people to take him at his word, all the while denying an overwhelming body of evidence provided by a legitimate, historic, and previously recognized Tribe. He also does so in a feigned regard for all indigenous people, preying on the hearts and minds of those he is actively deceiving.
But none of that stops Lofgren from sending out maps of Muwekma Ohlone territory to her supporters, claiming that the Tribe has no right to their territories. Using the media releases, Lofgren intentionally seeks to incite animosity between the Muwekma Ohlone Tribe and the Tamien group.
Lofgren’s willingness to pit indigenous communities against each other like this has raised questions about the congresswoman’s moral character. She has already been accused of betraying the Muwekma Ohlone because California’s very wealthy gaming tribes bankroll the Democratic Party – and they see Muwekma’s aboriginal territory as a lucrative gaming market.
Operatives across the political spectrum are in agreement that Lofgren’s campaign to discredit Nijmeh not only failed, but has created an enormous backlash against Lofgren – who sees herself as the ‘Boss of Bosses’.
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