The California Republican who won unanimously

WASHINGTON – There were a lot of surprises on Election Day – and many landslide votes.

But how about this one for defying the political odds?

One California incumbent – a conservative Republican member of the House of Representatives in a very Democratic state – won unanimously, or just about any way.

In fact, this emerging young Republican congressman actually ran unopposed in his Central Valley district.

His name is Devin Nunes – and judging from his popularity on the TV news channels, he's being seen as an up-and-comer.

What's more, he's the author of a hot-selling book called "Restoring the Republic: A Clear Concise and Colorful Blueprint for America's Future," that is all about how to govern the nation now that Republicans have taken control.

One major economist even says the book makes the House Republican leadership's "Pledge to America" pale by comparison.

"(T)he Pledge lacks the chutzpah of the original Contract (With America), which boldly introduced measures including a balanced-budget requirement, welfare reductions and 12-year term limits for members of Congress," Kevin Hassett, director of economic-policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute, wrote recently in Bloomberg.com. "... A number of ambitious young Republican thinkers such as Paul Ryan with his Roadmap for America's Future or Devin Nunes, whose new book 'Restoring the Republic: A Clear, Concise, and Colorful Blueprint for America's Future' has quietly become the leading topic of conversation in some Washington policy circles, have argued for a different approach.

"They believe," Hassett continues, "that Republicans need to set a clear and aggressive agenda ahead of the midterm election so that they can claim a mandate while negotiating major fixes with Obama afterward."

Currently conducting a scorching-hot media tour promoting "Restoring the Republic," which WND Books published and has in its third printing, Nunes notes where the "Pledge to America" fell short.

"It's not taking us where we ultimately have to go as a country, dealing with entitlements and permanent tax changes," he told the Washington Post. "But I can't fault the [Republican] leadership, because it is political season and they are putting out the best possible thing."

Nunes recently appeared on Fox News' "America's News HQ" and further distinguished his plan. His energy solutions include drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and the Outer Continental Shelf, expanding nuclear power and increasing coal use and oil-shale production.

"How are you going to get around the environmentalist?" asked host Gregg Jarrett. "They're still there. They're still going to be filing lawsuits."

Nunes didn't flinch.

"(W)e're going to have to," he answered, "... China today is now using more energy than we use in the United States."

Citing China's doubling its nuclear-power capacity and "bringing on a new coal plant nearly every week," Nunes said his plan posed as much potential to invigorate the economy as to strengthen energy creation – and held important national-security implications.

"If we want to remain the world's superpower, if we want to promote democracy around the world, we're going to have to get back to producing energy," he said.

Nunes' health-care plan pledges to repeal Obamacare and allows families to purchase coverage in any state. He promotes replacing the personal income tax with the flat tax, replacing the corporate tax with a business consumption tax and abolishing taxes on interest, dividends and capital gains.

"Lots in the book, including immigration," said Jarrett. "I actually enjoyed reading it, learned a lot."

Elected to office at age 29, Nunes, a member of the House Committee on Ways and Means, says he's learned the workings of Washington while retaining his core convictions. That claim reflects in his votes and actions. He was a vocal opponent of Obamacare and led a short-lived successful defeat of the first bank bailout. Media in the 21st Congressional District report he's "been consistent" in his opposition to earmarks and he even includes a plan for ending the practice of redistricting, which he says "artificially" ensures the longevity of countless political careers.

Beyond outlining several broad and bold policy proposals, "Restoring the Republic" reads a like a novel, as the narrative is infused with quotations and recounts high-stakes backroom deals and tense political bargaining sessions. Nunes also details how Big Business marries with the political establishment to create legislatively supported marketplace conditions that "make mockeries" of the principles of free enterprise.

In his latest guest column at Big Government, he describes how congressional Democrats leverage this arrangement.

"In recent years, Democrats have become increasingly militant in their efforts to shake down corporate America," he writes. "For the most part, big business has been willing to participate in the Democratic Party's protection racket in order to prevent Congress and the president from doing something worse. ... The president extorted insurance and pharmaceutical companies as part of his health-care-reform initiative; Democrats in Congress extorted America's financial sector under the auspices of financial-sector reform; and radical environmentalists and their friends in Congress have transformed big oil into a cash cow to fund global-warming hysteria."

Noting what he describes as a White House attack – and the possible use of the Internal Revenue Service – on Koch Industries for "the company's lawful financial support for conservative and libertarian causes," Nunes goes right after George Soros. And he also writes, "President Obama is leading a paranoid, insecure and dictatorial administration – one that is in desperate need of better congressional oversight."

Telling the Visalia Times-Delta, Tulare Advance-Register his plan is aimed at ending government's "command-and-control mentality" and the "totalitarian tactics by Nancy Pelosi," Nunes called the rise of the tea party a "blessing."

"Incumbents who voted for the bailout will be stigmatized by those votes, or votes for the stimulus package or the health-care plan," he said. "Those incumbents will be in trouble, because the tea party will target them."