Jones threatens to sue Thompson over attack ad

Two and a half weeks before California’s June 2 primary, Eric Jones’ campaign says
someone secretly recorded a small house event in Davis — and that Rep. Mike Thomp-
son’s campaign is now using the audio in an attack ad.

A reportedly secret recording and a new attack ad have become flashpoints in the
political contest between Thompson and Jones for the 4th Congressional District seat.
Jones’ campaign is threatening to sue and file a criminal complaint over a YouTube ad
Thompson released May 6 called “Lapdog,” which accuses Jones of lying about
stocks and points on screen to a meet-and-greet Jones held in Davis on March 8.

The problem, according to a cease-and-desist letter from Jones’ Washington, D.C.
law firm Foster Garvey, is that the Davis event wasn’t open to the public — and Jones’
campaign says it was secretly recorded.

About ten people attended the March 8 event, held at the home of Nora Oldwin
and Dean Johansson. Attendees had to get the address from the Jones campaign af-
ter expressing interest. California is an “all-party consent” state, meaning it’s illegal to
record a private conversation without the consent of everyone involved.

“It appears someone inserted themselves into our private meet-and-greet and
taped it and then gave it to the Thompson campaign, which is now using it to attack
Eric Jones,” Oldwin told the Davis Enterprise, which first reported the dispute.

The Jones campaign says it isn’t sure who made the recording, but it has a theory:
Thompson’s campaign captured the audio and then leaked a copy to a New York Post
reporter, who later shared it with the Jones campaign. The May 8 cease-and-desist let-
ter, signed by Foster Garvey attorney Brad Deutsch, called the Thompson ad “almost
entirely comprised of defamatory statements about Mr. Jones and/or relies on illegally
recorded conversation. Both of these acts violate California law.”

“Mr. Jones is incensed by the Thompson Campaign’s decision to disseminate to
the public what it knows full well are lies,” Deutsch wrote.

The Jones campaign says it isn’t after money. The letter says the campaign “does
not intend to seek monetary damages from any future litigation but instead intends to
ensure that the Thompson campaign is operating within the bounds of California law
in an effort to uphold and maintain the public’s trust in elections.”

The Thompson campaign has not publicly responded to the cease and desist.

A race that’s gotten personal

The “Lapdog” episode is the latest in a contest that has slid from policy fights into per-
sonal ones. Thompson, the 75-year-old St. Helena Democrat first elected in 1998, has
rarely faced serious primary opposition. Jones, a former venture capitalist and recent
Napa transplant who still keeps a home in San Francisco’s Pacific Heights, has
changed that. He outraised Thompson in 2025, roughly $2.6 million to $2 million, and
is still ahead in total fundraising heading into the primary.
Outside money has poured in too. Quiver Quantitative estimates about $8.55 mil-
lion has been spent on the contest over the last two years.

This isn’t the first time the campaigns have traded barbs over conduct rather than
policy. In December, the Press Democrat first reported that Capitol Police were investi-
gating a 19-year-old Jones campaign volunteer who was found parked for hours at a
time outside Thompson’s St. Helena home — conduct that Thompson’s campaign said
frightened his wife and granddaughter. In early March, Politico reported that Jones
had posted a video showing him posing with prominent Democrats including Dolores
Huerta and Michael Tubbs at the state party’s nominating convention, raising ques-
tions about whether the framing implied endorsements he didn’t have

The redrawn 4th District now stretches across a broad swath of Northern Califor-
nia — all of Napa, Yolo, Colusa, Sutter and Yuba counties, plus parts of Sonoma, Lake,
Sacramento and Placer.

David McCuan, a political science professor at Sonoma State University, told Insur-
anceNewsNet earlier this spring that Jones has run a more disciplined challenge than
past well-funded primary opponents.

“I don’t know if Mike’s team is running scared. But they’re running concerned,”
McCuan said. “The Jones team is running this in a more sophisticated way than previ-
ous millionaire campaigns.”

The primary is June 2.