Rep. Pete Aguilar, D-Redlands, raised more than $500,000 in the first three months of this year for his 2018 re-election, his campaign announced this week. 

Aguilar, who represents part of San Bernardino County, has more than $1.3 million in campaign funds, according to a campaign news release.  Updated information on the congressman’s campaign finances was not immediately available on the Federal Election Commission website. 

Aguilar’s political prospects in a blue-leaning 31st Congressional District are looking up these days.  He did not make the National Republican Congressional Committee’s 2018 target list, which focuses on vulnerable congressional Democrats. 

Scripps College economics professor Sean Flynn, who ran as a Republican for Aguilar’s seat in 2014, has been considering a challenge to Aguilar next year.  Flynn, who did not advance out of last June’s primary, is scheduled to speak to the Redlands Tea Party Patriots on Thursday, April 6. 

Jeff Horseman got into journalism because he liked to write and stunk at math.  He grew up in Vermont and he honed his interviewing skills as a supermarket cashier by asking Bernie Sanders “Paper or plastic?”  After graduating from Syracuse University in 1999, Jeff began his journalistic odyssey at The Watertown Daily Times in upstate New York, where he impressed then-U.S. Senate candidate Hillary Clinton so much she called him “John” at the end of an interview.  From there, he went to Annapolis, Maryland, where he covered city, county and state government at The Capital newspaper before love and the quest for snowless winters took him in 2007 to Southern California, where he started out covering Temecula for The Press-Enterprise.  Today, Jeff writes about Riverside County government and regional politics.  Along the way, Jeff has covered wildfires, a tropical storm, 9/11 and the Dec. 2 terror attack in San Bernardino.  If you have a question or story idea about politics or the inner workings of government, please let Jeff know.  He’ll do his best to answer, even if it involves a little math.