An antiwar, pro-choice environmentalist is running against the worst member of Congress in Northern California. And they're both Republicans.
This diary draws attention to several fascinating articles about the primary battle facing GOP Rep. Richard Pombo in Northern California's CA-11 district, all published this week by the San Francisco Bay Guardian.
Revealing excerpts and more below the fold...
Every so often the local press here in San Francisco delivers material worthy of a national audience. This week the
Bay Guardian published a series of articles by Tim Kingston about one of the most infamous members of the GOP caucus, Richard Pombo (famous for his many attempts to gut the Endangered Species Act) and his upcoming election fight.
The first article introduces us to Pete McCloskey, Pombo's primary challenger:
This is not your typical Republican primary campaign.
McCloskey is a pro-choice, pro-environment, troops-out-of-Iraq, old-style moderate. In many ways he's more progressive than a lot of the people who currently run the Democratic Party.
At 78, McCloskey, who once represented Portola Valley, in San Mateo County, in Congress, is one of the last representatives of an increasingly scarce breed: the liberal Republican. His wing of the GOP, which once played a key role in American politics, has increasingly fallen victim to the religious right and the scorched-earth tactics of former Congressional leader Tom "the Hammer" Delay.
Pombo is the embodiment of the latter legacy. He's one of the most socially conservative, environmentally challenged, global warming-skeptical, pro-Alaska oil-drilling, antichoice, and antigay representatives in the country. He has also been tagged as one of the nation's 13 least ethical Congress members by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, DC. He possesses a remarkably low 7 percent rating from the American Civil Liberties Union and is a noted associate of both Delay and Jack Abramoff. He's even given Delay's legal defense fund $5,000 (see "Follow the Money," page 17).
It's hard to believe Pombo represents any part of the Bay Area. But his oddly gerrymandered 11th District is a safe Republican seat -- and the only way to beat him, McCloskey says, is in a Republican primary.
I didn't know that Republicans like this existed.
He may look like a kindly, retired old uncle in photographs, but the guy has a steel spine. McCloskey was the very first Congress member -- Republican or Democrat -- to take a stand against the Vietnam War in 1969, when he called for the repeal of the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution. In 1973, McCloskey was the first member of either party to call for Richard M. Nixon's impeachment. He also took a moderate position on the Middle East, which earned him the undying enmity of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. He helped engineer the first Earth Day and draft the Endangered Species Act -- a law that, in McCloskey's view, Pombo has done his best to "gut."
McCloskey is hoping that disillusionment with the Republican Party can be channeled against Pombo -- and he hopes he can convince locals that the incumbent is way out of touch.
"These two guys, Republican businessmen, they went to school with [Pombo] and are about his age," McCloskey says. "They said something has changed in Richard; he has gotten fat off all his money. He no longer thinks of us; he is working for himself. If there are many more people out there like that, [Pombo] may be in more trouble than he thinks."
As you can see from the above excerpts, this is a great article. Go read the
whole thing.
Then we have "Pombo on the Issues":
To say that Richard Pombo is an environmental skeptic is putting it mildly. When asked if Pombo accepted the worldwide scientific consensus that global warming is a fact, his spokesperson, Wayne Johnson, shilly-shallied. "What I have heard him say is the jury is still out," Johnson cautiously ventured. "For those absolutely convinced, I would not put him in that category."
Pombo entered Congress determined to "reform" the Endangered Species Act and other tree-hugging depredations on the rights of private property owners. Before arriving in Washington, he cowrote a book titled This Land Is Our Land: How to End the War on Private Property, in which he declared that he'd become politically active after a skirmish with the East Bay Regional Park District about the creation of a public right-of-way through his property. He later switched his story to say that his family's property values had been hurt when their land was designated a San Joaquin kit fox critical habitat.
Both claims were entirely without merit. But Pombo is not one to let the facts get in the way.
That's an understatement if I ever heard one.
Pombo has opposed stem cell research, supports banning "partial birth" abortion, and has a 0 percent rating from NARAL, the pro-choice group. He voted for the constitutional ban on same-sex marriage and against allowing gay adoption in Washington, DC.
He has voted in favor of making the PATRIOT Act permanent and supports a constitutional amendment to oppose flag burning and desecration. He supports more prisons, the death penalty, and more cops. He voted to prohibit medical marijuana and HIV-prevention needle exchange, in Washington, DC.
Pombo has a 97 percent approval rating from the US Chamber of Commerce. He opposes gun control and product-misuse lawsuits against gun manufacturers. He got an A-plus rating from the National Rifle Association.
You can find a more detailed profile of Dick's record here.
And lastly, here's the last part of Tim Kingston's trilogy of Richard Pombo articles, "Follow the Money:
Pombo's campaign warchest leads to Abramoff and Big Oil."
Some choice excerpts:
According to the nonpartisan Open Secrets website, which monitors campaign contributions, Pombo received some $10,000 from the Keep Our Majority PAC, which is supported by disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff. The former Capitol Hill power broker and convicted felon is also one of the six top donors to Pombo's RICH Political Action Committee. And Pombo has received more than $500,000 in donations from Indian tribes, members and lobbyists, despite the fact that there are no Indian tribes in the 11th congressional district. Two of the tribes linked to Abramoff, the Saginaw Chippewa and the Mississippi Choctaw, have given Pombo more than $10,000.
But Abramoff and Indian tribes are not the only people who directly or indirectly gave Pombo scads of cash. The two largest industrial contributors to Pombo are the agricultural and real estate sectors--which makes sense given that those are the dominant industries in his area. But his third largest source of campaign funds is the oil and gas industry, which has given him $178,788 since 1989. Pombo is chair of the house Committee on Resources, which oversees those industries. Chevron Texaco alone gave him $21,500.
There are plenty of reasons for the oil giant to like Pombo. He opposed a Chinese bid to purchase Unocal -- Chevron also wanted to buy Unocal - and has tried to lift the moratorium on oil drilling off the coast of California.
Early this year, investigative reporters with the Los Angeles Times uncovered two cases of what looks suspiciously like back scratching between Pombo and the extractive industries. In 1999, Pombo and Rep John Doolittle (R-Roseville) linked up to put the kibosh on a Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation investigation of Charles Hurwitz, of Maxxam lumber clear-cutting infamy, over his involvement in a collapsed Texas savings and loan company. According to the Times the legislators, both known as "protégés of [Tom] Delay" subpoenaed documents from the confidential FDIC investigation of Hurwitz and promptly published them in the Congressional Record, styming the government's case. Hurwitz subsequently gave Pombo $1,000 and Doolittle $5,000.
Another LA Times article noted that in late 2005, just three months before Pombo inserted language into a budget bill--without debate or hearings--that would have opened public lands, including national forests, to mining operations, Washington lobbyist Duane Gibson organized a $1,000 a plate fundraiser for Pombo. Gibson is a former aide to Pombo's House Resource Committee and is now under scrutiny in the Abramoff scandal. While the total dollar amount raised that night is unknown, the paper revealed several mining companies made donations to Pombo. Gibson, who also personally contributed $1,000, also represented some of those companies.
For further fun facts, check out www.opensecrets.org for who gives Pombo what money or Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW).
The GOP primary is June 6th. I don't know much about polling in this district, so maybe folks can shed some light in the comments. thanks for reading this far!