The actions of Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) as House Intelligence chair have been the subject of repeated clashes with fellow California Rep. Adam Schiff, a Democrat. | Susan Walsh, File/AP Photo Ad campaign whacks Devin Nunes

SAN FRANCISCO — House Intelligence Chairman Devin Nunes of California has become a GOP hero and a Fox News regular in his role as the president’s congressional pit bull on the Russia investigation. But a new Democratic ad campaign aims to unseat the congressman by suggesting that he’s advancing his own stardom in Washington while neglecting his real job of representing his constituents back home in California’s Central Valley.

“Enough with the Inspector Clouseau routine,’’ said former Democratic Rep. Ellen Tauscher, who co-founded Fight Back California, an independent expenditure campaign that on Monday will unveil what it calls “Three Billboards Against Devin Nunes Outside Fresno, California” — a takeoff on the popular recent movie “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri.”


The billboards, posted on Highway 99 — the main artery running through the Central Valley-based 22nd Congressional District — say: “Why is Devin Nunes hot on Russia … While farmers get burned by a trade war with China? … Congressman Nunes, how could you forget us?”

Instead of investing time and energy in what appears to be an effort to undermine the House Russia investigation, said Tauscher, who served as undersecretary of state for arms control in the Obama administration, “maybe he could explain to his constituents why he hasn’t had a town hall.’’

“Or how about he starts to pay attention to the China trade issue that is impacting his district?” she said.

The billboards are the opening shot in a campaign that organizers say will initially spend $50,000 to $100,000 on billboards and digital ads.

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The effort will be expanded to ads on cable and broadcast TV over the next few months to target a congressman who has consistently made headlines in recent months for his efforts to delegitimize the federal probe into Russian interference in the 2016 election.

While those actions have turned Nunes into a hero on the right, they’ve also transformed him into a lightning rod on the left. As a result, Nunes -- once considered invulnerable thanks to the Republican orientation of his district and a $2.4 million campaign war chest — has opened himself up to a challenge.

“The poll numbers in this district betray the reality of what’s happening on the ground,’’ said Katie Merrill, the Democratic political strategist advising the Fight Back California PAC. While Nunes’ support among hard-line GOP voters remains strong, she said independent voters and GOP women in the district are among the rising number of Central Valley residents “who are very concerned about Nunes spending all his time on Washington scandals and not paying attention to the district,’’ where issues like water and the struggling local economy are key.

Fueling Democrats’ hunger to take out Nunes is what many see as an unexpectedly cash-flush challenge from Democrat Andrew Janz. The Fresno County prosecutor has “raised a tremendous amount of money, he’s homegrown, raised in the district three generations,’’ Merrill said. “There’s no mistaking Andrew Janz for a San Francisco liberal. He’s of the Valley — and he is putting away the bad guys.”

While Janz’s bid remains a long shot, local and national Democrats are increasingly energized to take out Nunes.

Tauscher held a fundraiser for the PAC’s efforts this past weekend in the Bay Area, headlined by former Rep. Barney Frank, where the former congresswoman said more than 100 people showed up and “just about everybody got out their checkbooks” to assist with the anti-Nunes efforts.

Nunes’ actions as House Intelligence chairman have been the subject of repeated clashes with Democrat Rep. Adam Schiff, who on Sunday told “Meet the Press” host Chuck Todd that his GOP counterpart has consistently aimed to undermine the Russia investigation.

Citing demands for more information about a confidential FBI informant who President Donald Trump has suggested may have "infiltrated or surveilled" his campaign, Schiff said Nunes’ typical response has been “‘bring it on, we don’t care, whatever is in service of the president we are willing to do.’”

“[It’s] a dramatic and destructive new low for the Congress of the United States, basically to ignore the warnings of the FBI and Justice Department,” Schiff said.

Nunes said Sunday on Fox News he would not meet with the Justice Department until he gets more information on the FBI’s confidential source.

Referring to the reports revealing the existence of the informant, Nunes said, "Now if you look at what happened on Friday night, probably the mother of all leaks, of all time, to two major newspapers, that came out Friday night. Now, had [Congressman Trey] Gowdy and I went to that meeting, you can bet they would have tried to pin that on us."

California Republican activists note Nunes’ high profile as one of the president’s most vocal defenders has made him a party icon — and a big fundraising draw — among the GOP base. He is the headliner in an advertised June 3 fundraiser in Newport Beach, where tickets costing up to $2,700 will benefit embattled Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, who is considered the most vulnerable GOP House member in the state.

But the suggestion that Nunes has invested too much energy on issues involving Russia and not enough in his home district has been echoed repeatedly by newspapers in his home district.

A recent op-ed in the Fresno Bee recommended giving Nunes “the boot,’’ charging that “for too long Nunes has been a bagman for the Trump Syndicate, placing loyalty to Donald Trump over his obligations to represent the needs of his constituents.”

The Visalia Times Delta , Nunes’ local paper, recently reported that local Councilman Jose Sigala sent a letter last June requesting the congressman host a town meeting to hear from constituents in Nunes’ hometown of Tulare. “I offered to help him organize it’’ but never heard from him, Sigala said.

After Nunes became the subject of a spoof by late-night comedian Stephen Colbert, Sigala in April told the town council that “I probably have a better chance of Colbert to come out to a town hall meeting than I do of the congressman.”

That prompted Nunes spokesman Jack Langer to suggest Sigala was “repeating talking points put out by left-wing activist groups,’’ and to slam the Visalia Times Delta for even reporting the comments.

“I guess it was a slow news day,’’ he said.

