WAPO: Mike Levin finds himself on defense over gas prices
Voters aren’t buying Mike Levin’s lies.
They know Levin, Joe Biden and California Democrats are to blame for the high price of gas.
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Democrats find themselves on the defensive over gas prices
Marianna Sotomayor and Tony Perry
The Washington Post
April 5, 2022
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/04/05/democrats-gas-prices/
When Rep. Mike Levin is back home, the California Democrat tells voters about the three P’s he says are to blame for gas prices topping $6 a gallon: the pandemic, Vladimir Putin and alleged price-gouging by oil companies.
But many of his constituents in Southern California’s 49th District are convinced President Biden and the Democrats he leads are in some measure responsible for an issue that has gained sudden urgency for American voters in an election year.
Take Gloria Languren, 50, who stood unsmiling while finishing putting 3.2 gallons into her car over the weekend, budgeting just enough gas to get to her teaching job at an elementary school in Del Mar, where it’s cheaper to refuel.
“I’m hoping to win the lottery so I can afford a Tesla,” she said, joking about acquiring an electric car. “It’s so hard to know what to do or who to blame.”
The blame game over high fuel prices is in full throttle in Washington and congressional districts across the country as people like Languren decide who deserves the bulk of their anger over the sudden hit to their wallets. A self-described conservative Democrat now leaning Republican because of economic worries, Languren is the kind of voter who will help determine whether Democrats can hang on to their fragile congressional majorities come November.
Meanwhile, Democrats such as Levin — who represents a state with some of the highest gas prices in the country — are struggling to come up with quick fixes or even long-term solutions to the gas price problem, along with record levels of inflation overall. The issue is testing the mantra that Democrats are the party that “delivers.”
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In California, Levin has tried to sell a more nuanced defense of gas prices by talking about the three P’s.
But his message is being challenged not just by the handful of Republicans running to oppose him but also by many of his constituents. His district — which runs along the coastline from southern Orange County to San Diego County — was long a Republican stronghold until Levin flipped the seat in 2018, in a midterm election fueled by anger at President Donald Trump and Republicans.
Many of those Republicans now point out that with Biden in office, gas prices are higher than when Trump was president.
“Gas was cheaper when he was president,” Joshua Jessler, a 23 year-old apprentice plumber, said as he put on a wet suit to go surfing.
“It’s Biden’s fault, all the way,” said Bobby Ott, 39, an Army veteran working to get a contractor license who had an anti-Biden bumper sticker on his Jeep. “First thing he and his cronies did was to kill the Keystone pipeline. Now they want to blame Putin for the gas prices. Do they think we’re jerks?”
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Julia Bodey, 35, who drives a Tesla in Levin’s district, echoed the argument for pivoting to producing domestic energy alternatives.
“Maybe this gas issue will convince people we need to get away from oil,” she said. “It’s such a complicated issue. There is a lot of tension in the community — some people blaming Biden, which I think is unfair. He’s doing a good job, not an A-plus but better than the last guy.”
If Democratic voters stay put, it might be not out of any devotion to Levin but because his two main rivals appear significantly to the right on most issues.
Levin last month sent a questionnaire to constituents asking them to describe the issues of most importance to them. On Saturday he followed up with a tweet assuring the public that he, too, is “feeling pain from high gas prices” and is “committed to focusing on solutions that develop real results.” He linked to his op-ed on a local news website in which he blamed high prices on the three P’s.
Pressed on whether the constituents he speaks with are receptive to his message, Levin said he’s “going to keep telling the truth.”