The
Tracy Press endorsement finally came through. After much soul searching (I believe) they endorsed Pombo.
The headline We know Rep. Pombo and we trust him.
Their final conclusion was that they have known this man for many years and are not ready to believe any of the charges that have been made against him. After all he grew up here. Still, they find that he is not without fault and, like the Stockton Record, they believe he needs to change.
We have trust in Pombo to make these changes and to continue to lead our district as it strives to bring jobs and an improved quality of life for us in the Central Valley and those in the Marianas. We have no faith in the Democrats' ability to do the same. And we have little faith that McNerney will even care.
There are two things that I find disturbing about this edtorial. The publisher of the Tracy Press is a honorable man. He cares deeply about his community. He is not happy with the
interference in local politics of Pombo money. But, to admit that Pombo has been scamming the public all of these years to to call his own judgement into question and that is a step he can not take.
The second is that they did not see that Jerry McNerney that so many of the rest of us saw. The idea that they can feel this man does not care just blows my mind. Somehow, I think that he chose to see what he wanted to see.
Add to this the fact that the Defenders of Wildlife and the DCCC made some very large mistakes in their advertising, claiming things that were not true (Defenders ad re: Marianas ... DCCC claim of Pombo voting to raise his own salary.) and pulling Jerry McNerney down to the level of Pombo's sleazy campaign staff. If McNerney loses, the DCCC needs to take a hit for coming in late and delivering crap in terms of ad content. The same goes for the Defenders, who have done a fantastic job of organizing canvassing operations, but whose ads are so full of inuendo without backup and outright falsities that they allow Pombo to get away with his claims that "these outside groups are out to get me.'
Now, with Bill Clinton coming to the district to campaign for McNerney, we have again made this an issue with national repercussions, not one about local issues and, as Tip O'Neil said "all politics is local." I have a great fear that this is not good news for McNerney unless we have a massive GOTV effort this weekend and continuing right until polls close on Tuesday.
We have a chance to make up for the problems that I mentioned, but it means that we need every one who can to come through for Jerry.