By Richard Miles – 04/22/2026
Roughly only 1 in 10 US House races are truly competitive. That should concern every voter.
Every election, we hand our representative a two-year contract. The question is: are we choosing the best person for the job, or simply voting for a party label?
Safe districts produce politicians who act as if reelection is automatic. They stop listening. They stop showing up in meaningful ways.
Take our Congressman, Tom McClintock.
I recently received his email update, promising news of his “most recent work on behalf of the 5th District.” It listed eight recent meetings held around the district. But they were all small, carefully selected and very safe gatherings.
What I did not see was notice of an open public town hall where any constituent could attend, ask questions, and be heard. I certainly can’t remember one in recent years. He’s been invited to the Candidate’s Forum this Thursday run by the AAUW and Amador High Students. Right now he’s listed as a no-show. He has not confirmed he’ll attend. Maybe he will. Or maybe he’s afraid of facing his constituents.
His email makes it clear he seems confident voters will renew his contract for another two years without doing much work to connect with his constituents.
His email concluded with a friendly interview on Newsmax about birthright citizenship. As far as I can tell, that’s not a major issue concerning the 5th district. But it is a distraction from his failure as a leader.
What I did not see in his cheery update was any discussion of the issues we local families talk about every day:
- Rising grocery prices
- High fuel costs
- Tariffs and their effect on consumers and businesses
- Insurance becoming unaffordable in fire-prone communities
- Wildfire danger in our forests
- Water reliability
- New jobs and economic opportunity in the district
An insane, unwinnable, undeclared and very expensive war in Iran
Congressman McClintock serves on committees directly connected to lands, water, and natural resources. Those are issues that matter deeply here. Yet his email offered no proposed solutions for the problems we face.
It is no secret that Amador County leans Republican. Many of my neighbors routinely vote Republican out of habit or loyalty, regardless of the individual candidate.
But elections are job interviews, not team sports.
This year voters also have another option in Mike Masuda — a local candidate with roots in the area, an Amador High graduate raising a young family here in Amador and who says, as an engineer, he is trained to solve problems and anxious to get to work. He is a Democrat, yes. But the bigger question is whether he would work harder on the everyday challenges we actually face as he promises.
So ask yourself:
Do we automatically renew the same contract and expect different results? Are we really going to send Tom McClintock back for another deuce of do-nothing? Or do we hire someone new for two years, judge his performance honestly, and then decide again next time?
That’s how accountability is supposed to work.– Richard
