The race between Jerry McNerney and Richard Pombo offers voters a clear choice between a true blue progressive and one of the worst offenders of public trust. Many have blogged about CA-11. But I want to draw your attention to this race NOW. I am not associated with the McNerney campaign. I am a "lurker" who believes that this is a critical moment to show our support for a strong progressive candidate.
Jerry McNerney ran an impromptu campaign in 2004 and still garnered 39% of the vote. (
UTBriancl's diary provided a great write-up on the background on CA-11). He is running again this year to send Richard Pombo packing. The DCCC did not back him in the primary even though grassroots organizations such as the DFA have worked for him since 2004. He has also been receiving enthusiastic endorsements from the netroots community. Now the DCCC is in the midst of deciding where to place its bets for November 2006. Selected candidates will receive funds from the DCCC campaign war chest. So this is a critical moment for us in the netroots community to show our support for Jerry McNerney.
The story in CA-11 is similar to the senatorial primary in Connecticut. The netroots community is making an impact in that race, and I believe we can make a difference in CA-11 as well. The California Democratic Party endorsed McNerney for the primary and more importantly the people in CA-11 voted overwhelmingly for McNerney to be the challenger. For whatever reasons, the DCCC decided that McNerney was not the best candidate to unseat Pombo. But when the DCCC sees renewed support from the netroots now, it may change its mind and put its money on McNerney.
Jerry McNerney has already demonstrated that he can win this race. There are 131,587, 157,353 and 53,542 registered Democrats, Republicans and DTS respectively in CD-11. Let's assume equal voter turnout of 60% across all three groups. If 85% of the Democrats vote for McNerney (the other 15% vote for Pombo, yikes), 75% of the Republicans vote for Pombo (the other 25% swing for McNerney) and an equal split in the DTS, McNerney would win the race with 106,774 versus Pombo's 98,714 votes. It is important to note that Pombo lost over 37% of the Republican votes in the Primary and the split in DTS is likely to be in McNerney's favor. As McCloskey says in the Contra Costa Times, "The hardcore Pombo supporters have voted for him, but I don't think there are that many out there."
I want to echo hilltopper's plead here:
The big advantage Pombo has is money - and lots of it (and) from the worst form of contributors. McNerney needs to get into the game. I urge all to contribute now to his campaign. Here is a link: http://www.jerrymcnerney.org/....
So contribute to the McNerney campaign, or blog about this race to give it national attention. But do it before 6/30 to give the McNerney campaign a good showing in its FEC filing. Our contributions at this moment mean a lot more to the McNerney campaign than any other times because major donors' decisions on which races to support are partly based on the 6/30 filing. Our support at this time is strategic and will be effective in sending one of the finest progressives to Congress.