Ryan Sabalow gives an interesting recap in today's Record Searchlight about last night's congressional candidates forum, at which several opponents reportedly made the rice subsidies accepted by farmer and state Sen. Doug LaMalfa an issue.
I talked to Sen. LaMalfa at some length about the subsidies last summer for a package of stories that we at the Capital Press were doing. It was a reluctant interview about a touchy subject, to be sure. In fact some members of the California Rice Commission were so ticked off about my article that they didn't talk to me for months afterward.
I expanded on LaMalfa's views on a blog post at the time, which you can read here. He defends the subsidies vehemently, adding that even if he were to decide not to take the money for political reasons, it would put his farm at a severe competitive disadvantage because everyone else in the industry does make use of the program.
Farm subsidies haven't been much of a factor in LaMalfa's campaigns for the state Legislature, but they're a little more relevant to a congressional campaign because, after all, a congressman LaMalfa would be voting on future farm bills. Whether the issue is enough to sink him, however, remains to be seen. And I have my doubts, considering that a lot of conservatives secretly like big government as long as their palms are the ones being greased.
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