Why Mai Vang doesn’t stack up against Sacramento Rep. Doris Matsui | Opinion

Sacramento City Councilmember Mai Vang’s combative campaign to unseat U.S. Rep. Doris Matsui has focused almost entirely on attacking Matsui’s age, campaign finances and tenure. Vang’s website plainly acknowledges the strategy: “Voters need to see the overwhelmingly negative messaging against the incumbent.

There’s a good reason for Vang to be on the attack. She has precious little to show for her 10 years in elected office on Sacramento’s City Council and the Sacramento City Unified School District board before that.

Vang’s main claim to fame appears to be stories and photos of her turning her back on the American flag and texting (because, as she says, “I use that moment to ground myself”) while her Democratic colleagues recite the Pledge of Allegiance at the beginning of council meetings

On the SCUSD board, Vang did little to right the ship at a school district awash in debt and plagued by school closures and labor disputes. Vang left after one term. Accomplishments? None.

While campaigning for the city council, Vang promised much of what she is selling in her campaign for Congress: better health care, greater economic opportunity, safer streets, and a reduction in homelessness — traditional vote-pleasing rainbows and unicorns.

In fact, the conditions in Vang’s district on all of these issues are unfavorable.

Vang refuses to support Mayor Kevin McCarty’s aggressive efforts to build more tiny houses and provide shelter. Her reasoning: every unit needs a shower. Even housing advocates disagree; they argue it is more important for the unhoused to be off the streets with roofs over their heads. Vang was on the losing end of a recent 7-2 vote on McCarty’s key proposal, as she is on other important issues facing the council.

Vang has also voted against four of the five city budgets, largely over funding for public safety and police. She has consistently opposed efforts to fill vacant positions in the city’s police department. Meanwhile, her South Sacramento council district continues to have among the highest rates of crime in the city.

This failure to build consensus with colleagues on the difficult decisions required to balance the city’s budget is central to why the majority of her council colleagues threw their support behind Matsui.

Vang’s frosty relations with Mayor McCarty and the rest of the council is driven by her socialist ideology over practicality. This does not bode well for getting results in the House of Representatives because relationships matter in Congress.

But perhaps Exhibit A of Vang’s failed leadership is a dusty 102-acre parcel in the heart of her council district in Meadowview purchased by the city in 2022 for $12.2 million from the U.S. Department of Labor. (Matsui, whose record of delivering results for Sacramento is indisputable, helped make the transaction happen).

Four years ago, Vang championed the purchase as “transformative.” Today, it remains an empty lot.

Vang blocked the original plans to utilize the site for affordable housing pushed by former Mayor Darrell Steinberg. Since that time, she has failed to develop consensus behind the project. It’s now being studied to death and planners say it may take up to seven years to develop — and that’s if the city doesn’t have to return federal money because of inaction or sell the land completely.

Vang’s attacks on Matsui’s financial backers also seem mired in hypocrisy. In her City Council runs, Vang cashed multiple checks from casinos, PG&E, and developers totaling $57,910. In addition, her campaign is being buoyed by an independent expenditure of more than $600,000 from out-of-state special-interest PACs.

As for the complaints about age, like it or not, Congress runs on a seniority system. The more experience you have, the more you’re rewarded with committee posts and resources a district needs.

There can be no argument that Matsui, who was rated one of the most effective members of Congress of any age or tenure, has delivered for the region.

If Vang couldn’t deliver on her top priority in her council district, how will she deliver for our region in Congress?

At this moment in history, the last thing Sacramento needs is a representative requiring training wheels. Experience matters.

Mai Vang is talented at yelling into bullhorns, but she doesn’t measure up as a representative for our region.

Steve Maviglio is a political consultant who served as press secretary to former California Gov. Gray Davis and deputy chief of staff to former California Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez.