Valadao on immigration and challenge from high profile Democrat Amanda Renteria

Valadao, a former one-term California Assemblyman, joined fellow Valley congressman Jeff Denham, in supporting a Democratic immigration reform measure known as HR 15, which would literally create a path to citizenship for over 11 million illegal immigrants in the United States.

Are representatives like Valadao and Denham lone voices in a sea of doubt?

No doubt there will be more sensible Republicans who recognize that immigration reform is needed and much of the hyperbole emanating from the minds and mouths of hardline immigration reformers is nonsense.

I’ve got to hand it to Valadao for taking a big chance in conservative Kings County. Will his stance on immigration reform hurt him here? Probably not. There may be many disappointed right-wing conservatives upset, but they probably won’t look elsewhere for a more conservative candidate.

Our local Congressman also joined with Democrats to end the disastrous government shutdown and debt ceiling crisis, as did other local conservatives, such as Tulare Congressman Devin Nunes, no stranger to conservative politics.

Ultimately, Valadao’s stance probably won’t earn him a primary challenge from a right-wing more conservative challenger, but he is going to face an uphill battle to retain his seat from appears to be a formidable Democratic challenger.

Amanda Renteria, a Valley native from Woodlake and the daughter of Mexican immigrant farmworkers, has announced her intentions of running for Valadao’s seat in Congress. She’s the real thing, arriving on the scene with an impressive resume that includes class valedictorian, the Central Section’s Scholar/Athlete of the Year, a graduate of Stanford University, public service as a top aide to Senator Diane Feinstein and later U.S. Senator Debbi Stabenow and more. She earned a Master’s degree in Business Administration from Harvard Business School, and even has found time to get married and raise two sons. She currently lives in Sanger.

Indeed a formidable candidate, Renteria is ready to tap into the nation’s unraveling support for a Republican brand of politics that calls for obstruction rather than cooperation in government. She is also running in an increasingly diverse district that in recent years has elected several Latino representatives to the halls of the state capitol and, now probably Congress.