When Fresno progressives look in the mirror, they might see Donald Trump grinning at them.

Many of the local progressives running in this election cycle, along with their surrogates, have adopted Trump tactics. Among them: I’m the only one who can fix this, labeling rival candidates “losers,” and playing the victim card.

I back many progressive ideas. Universal health care, for example. Making ICE a Constitution-abiding agency again. I applaud the Fresno City Council for putting $1 million into an immigrant legal defense fund.

I also believe that MAGA Fresno County Supervisor Garry Bredefeld should stop complaining about wasting taxpayer dollars for at least six months after his office settled a workplace violence and wrongful termination lawsuit for $220,000.

And I believe that Randy Villegas should represent residents of California’s 22nd Congressional District, not Trump puppet David Valadao.

But when you rely on the MAGA playbook to advocate for your candidacy, or your candidate, your ideas, no matter how good they might be, get lost in the messaging. Call me a dinosaur, but tactics matter.

Celedon Just Might Be Trump in a Wig

Among local progressives, no one is more Trumpian than Sandra Celedon, a surrogate for Fresno City Council candidate Ariana Martinez Lott. Sometimes I wonder if she is really Trump in a wig, hanging out in Fresno instead of wolfing down Big Macs and Diet Cokes at the White House.

A flyer touting the Fresno County Democratic Party’s endorsement of Nav Gurm, Martinez Lott’s opponent, and featuring Gurm and Democratic gubernatorial candidate Xavier Becerra sent Celedon into a rage.

“Tell me your a lying, deceiptful, little loser that doesn’t have a real record to stand on without telling me you are a lying, deceiptful little loser,” Celedon posted on social media. “Little Alex Wannabe is out here trying to trick voters into voting for him.”

Not only might Celedon benefit from having someone edit her social media posts before pushing the button, just like Trump, but she has no sense of irony.

In the June primary election, she failed to advance in the 31st Assembly District race, registering just 21% of the vote. She calls Gurm a loser? Regardless of how the votes fall Tuesday, Gurm at least made it out of the primary.

Meanwhile, Martinez Lott’s overarching social media message has been that she alone is the candidate who can uplift Fresno’s urban neighborhoods.

Frazier Conjures Up an Imaginary Culprit

Terance Frazier has run a positive campaign for State Community College District trustee, focusing on policy changes he’d like to implement.

But he’s never explained how he came to be at the home of his rival, Marcos Osorio, allegedly rifling through the mail at night. A video taken by Osorio’s sister, Allyson Osorio, shows her confronting a man who looks exactly like Frazier and sounds exactly like Frazier.

Fresno police and U.S. postal inspectors haven’t released the results of their investigations. However, if the man who was going through Marcos Osorio’s mail was really “Charles Smith,” as he claimed, you’d think Frazier would’ve demanded the investigations be concluded long before Tuesday’s vote. What better way to clear Frazier’s name, right?

I’ll concede this: Sorting through someone else’s mail is more Nixonian than Trumpian, and obviously Trump doesn’t do his own political dirty tricks. But pointing the finger at an imaginary “Charles Smith” and claiming innocence is Trump to the max.

The Soria-Pacheco Connection

Now for a blast from the past: Nothing says “progressive” quite like smearing your opponent in a campaign mailer designed to make it look like he committed assault. That’s what Esmeralda Soria did to Fresno City Council colleague Mike Karbassi in a 2022 Assembly race. In reality, it was a campaign consultant hired by Karbassi who was guilty of the crime.

Karbassi settled his defamation lawsuit against Soria a year ago, shortly before the trial was to begin. Terms of the settlement weren’t revealed, but you can bet that with Karbassi represented by ace Fresno attorney Brian Whelan, Soria, or her campaign coffers, didn’t get off scot-free.

Karbassi, a Blue Dog Democrat, now is locked in a battle against progressive, and Soria-supported, Maria Pacheco for the Fresno County Board of Supervisors District 1 seat.

Pacheco, the mayor of Kerman, has appointed herself an ICE-buster, which is fine when she confronts actual ICE agents. However, she apparently mistook a Fresno hairdresser driving through Kearney Park and his own neighborhood for ICE.

The hairdresser was driving a white Mercedes SUV. A video shows her clearly boxing him in at his house and then rushing off when the hairdresser’s sister emerges from the home. I could go on. Instead, why don’t you watch this KMPH 26 interview with Eric Bridges, the man stalked by Pacheco?

In Trump fashion, Pacheco didn’t admit her mistake. Instead, she issued a non-denial denial worthy of an obfuscating Trump press secretary.

Progressives Want to Take the Public Out of Public Records

Progressive Fresno City Council candidate Naindeep Singh had the misfortune of being arrested on suspicion of DUI on Oct. 24. He protested that he wasn’t under the influence, saw the charges quickly dropped after a clean blood test, and received apologies from the mayor and police chief.

However, Singh and his surrogates have kept the matter in the news, claiming that City Attorney Andrew Janz should never have confirmed the arrest to the media.

I can say with 100% confidence that if his opponent, Robert Fuentes, was arrested on suspicion of DUI and Janz refused to confirm it, the Singh camp would have screamed “cover-up” until their throats bled. For the record: Arrests are public record, a fact seemingly lost on local progressives when it involves one of their own.

Look, I get it. When you’re talking to voters and trying to get elected, what Marshall McLuhan wrote in 1964 rings true: The medium is the message. Thus, playing the victim, calling an opponent a loser, and generally behaving like Trump is what you do to get social media attention.

After Tuesday, some of these progressive candidates will be entrusted with governing. That means learning to count to four on the City Council and to three on the Board of Supervisors. They’ll find out quickly that they alone can’t fix it, and might even rue the day they decided to go all in on the Trump playbook.