POLITICO: “Vulnerable CA Republicans sought infrastructure dollars after slamming the bipartisan law”

To California Republicans, the bipartisan infrastructure law was "terrible," "reckless" and "the last thing middle class families need."

But once it opened a spigot of funding, they were eager to ask for the cash.

Four vulnerable House Republicans - Reps. Mike Garcia, Ken Calvert, David Valadao and Young Kim - all voted against the law in 2021, but subsequently lobbied the Department of Transportation for hundreds of millions of dollars for bus, road and other transit projects, according to letters obtained by Playbook.

Nay-voters are often dinged for publicly celebrating projects funded by legislation they opposed. But the missives from these four California Republicans reveal how the lawmakers actively angled for funds.

Valadao, who is running against former Assemblymember Rudy Salas in the Central Valley's CA-13, originally blasted the multi trillion-dollar package, saying it could become the "most expensive piece of legislation" in American history and one that could severely burden middle-class families.

He had much nicer things to say years later, when he wrote letters to Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg requesting grants for local projects, including a pedestrian bridge over a highway that bisected the city of Hanford.

His campaign, as well as Garcia's, didn't respond to a request for comment.

Garcia kept up his public bashing of the legislation long after he cast his vote - and as the behind-the scenes jockeying for dollars was well underway. He appeared on Fox Business twice last year to say the spending was partially to blame for rising inflation.

At the time of those TV hits, however, Garcia had already boosted a number of grant applications from his district, including requests by the city of Santa Clarita to fund new zero-emission buses and a Los Angeles County ask for a hydrology and debris flow study for the community around Castaic Lake. (The latter ended up receiving $3.2 million from the Federal Highway Administration.)

Garcia, who is running against Democrat George Whitesides in one of the most fiercely-contested House races in the country, wrote or co-signed seven letters to Buttigieg backing at least $69 million in requests for funding from the infrastructure law.

The Santa Clarita Republican also knocked the law's emphasis on equality and equity, telling one radio program "you don't pay for equality through an infrastructure bill." But this year he supported an application for a "Rebuilding American Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity" grant, touting how the city of Lancaster's proposed safety and connectivity project would serve disadvantaged communities.

Calvert - now fending off a challenge from Democrat Will Rollins - went on a tirade against the law in a 2021 Facebook post, where he claimed it was "reckless spending" that would further inflame inflation. The final deal, he said, "erodes our individual liberties and freedoms."

In the following years he would request at least $100 million in bipartisan infrastructure law funds for transportation projects in the district.