Welcome to another edition of Crashing the States--featuring Jerry McNerney in the 11th district of California!
This diary comes to you from Las Vegas, Nevada, where we have just spent the day with the Jack Carter campaign. Today represents the end of the driving portion of our road trip--my last three roadtrip diaries (Berkeley interviews, CA-50 and NV-Sen) will be written from my apartment in Los Angeles before heading out to Virginia to spend election day with the Jim Webb campaign.
This diary will unfortunately be very light on photos because I forgot my camera for one of our two days, so I only have a couple of usable pictures. I took some with the other, more professional camera, but I have yet to upload those off the card because my computer doesn't have a compatible cardreader, so it's complicated. So, sorry about that.
More below the fold...
Previous entries: NC-08 (Larry Kissell);
VA-Sen (Jim Webb);
DC interviews;
PA-07 and PA-08 (Joe Sestak and Patrick Murphy);
NJ-07 (Linda Stender); NYS-41:
1 and
2 (Brian Keeler);
CT-Sen (Ned Lamont);
NH-02 (Paul Hodes);
NY-29 (Eric Massa);
IN-06 (Barry Welsh);
IL-10 and IL-14 (Dan Seals and John Laesch);
TX-21 (John Courage) ;
CO-05 (Jay Fawcett);
CO-06 (Bill Winter);
MT-Sen (Jon Tester);
WA-08 (Darcy Burner)
As wonderful as our time in Seattle was, all good things must eventually come to an end, and we headed out in the afternoon from Seattle and made our way down to Ashland, Oregon, where we overnighted with a friend of one of our producers back home. She had very large pumpkin spiders in her backyard, which made me very excited! Unfortunately, they were in a position where they were badly lit at night, and they were gone by the morning--so, no pictures, I'm afraid.
Upon awakening the next day, we recommenced our drive down to California's 11th district--which had us pass right by Mount Shasta along the 5 freeway:
The 11th district stretches frmo Dublin to Stockton in some sort of weird, gerrymandered shape, as pictured below:
And now, a special comment.
Seriously, guys. If there's one race in the entire country that's representative about everything that's right with the change that we're trying to infuse into Congress, versus everything that's wrong with the Republicans' efforts to stay in power, it's this district right here. One could make the argument that certain other races might be more symbolic--say, Webb vs. Allen--and those are arguments I might understand. But if you ever wanted an exercise in contrast, black and white, right and wrong, you can find it right here in the 11th district of California.
One the one hand, you have Jerry McNerney--a math Ph.D. and a wind energy expert who makes a living as an alternative energy consultant. His main objective in Congress? To bring expanded alternative energy research back to the United States, and specifically to the 11th District of California.
One the other, you have Richard Pombo--universally regarded as one of the most corrupt and extreme members of Congress. A man who has done absolutely everything in his power to bend over backwards to hand oil companies more money. A man who would sell off our national parks to private industry to pillage our nation's national beauty and resources.
Even worse, Pombo is the chairman of the House Committee on Resources--meaning that oftentimes, what Pombo says goes as far as our country's public lands are concerned. If you think it's a scary thought that someone like Richard Pombo is in charge of our nation's lands and resources, you're likely not alone. kid oakland wrote about how we all live in Richard Pombo's district--and to tell you the truth, I think that this race--which is now on the DCCC's "red-to-blue" list--is an underappreciated race on this site.
Think of the message it would send about the new priorities of the American people if Jerry McNerney unseated Richard Pombo. Think not only about the improvement in government we would all receive, but think about what it would represent. The idea that we are done and fed up with lobbyist-run government for, of, and by oil companies. The idea that in this country, we want fresh ideas, clean energy and clean government.
Think about what it would mean. I can tell you this--the thought makes me excited.
end special comment.
We first caught up with Jerry at an NAACP candidate forum in Stockton. Richard Pombo was invited to the event, but it apparently wasn't his type of crowd, so he didn't bother showing up. Apparently there weren't enough oil lobbyists there to suit his tastes, and civil rights are apparently not all that important to him. There were so many different local campaigns in the Stockton area being covered at the candidate forum that even though the forum began at 6:00, Jerry did not get to answer questions until 8:30. So we took the opportunity to interview him a little bit in the meantime.
Gary and I first met Jerry back at DemocracyFest in San Diego, and knew right away based on Jerry's experience that he was one of the candidates we wanted to meet with on our journey. Jerry isn't the most empassioned firebrand candidate out there--he tends to take a more common-sense, and perhaps even academic, approach to solving our problems, such as energy--to name one prominent example. But Jerry does sound very pained when it comes to discussing the abdication by this current Congress of its moral and constitutional duty to counterbalance the executive branch and defend the Constitution that they swore to uphold.
To Jerry, it's just common sense. The Congress' duty is to look out for the interests of the people they're supposed to represent, and uphold the Constitution of the United States. It's not complicated.
The next day, we met Jerry at his office in Dublin, in the Western end of his district. He took us on a tour of his very busy office--full of staffers, organizers, volunteers, and a communications director who was so constantly busy that he barely spent 30 seconds off the phone.
As I explained earlier, I wasn't able to post any pictures because I can't get them onto my computer with the equipment I have. but take my word for it: the office had a lot going on--more so than in just about any other Congressional campaign office I've visited during the course of this trip.
STATE OF THE RACE:
The race, at this point, is far too close to call, and will rely--like so many other races we've covered--on GOTV operations toward election day. A poll conducted by Greenberg Quinlan Rosner on behalf of Defenders of wildlife gave Jerry a 48-46 lead at the beginning of October. The latest round of Majority Watch polls at the end of October gave him an identical lead.
Meanwhile Pombo's campaign has refused to release their own internal numbers. That, combined with the big money the NRCC is dumping into the race, is a strong sign that Pombo know's he's in a tough race.
So that concludes the report from CA-11! My next entry will detail our interviews in Berkeley with Jane Hamsher, Markos Moulitsas and Joan Blades. As a bonus feature, I will bring you...THE SPIDERS OF KOS! I know you can't wait.