In an editorial today the
Mercury News calls for the ouster of Pombo and Doolittle. They cite a history of corruption and nepotism as reasons to kick the bums out.
The facts are not new, they have been repeated over and over but the media have been giving it short thrift. Its good to see a major paper take a stand. My only criticisim is they don't mention Jerry McNerney or Charlie Brown by name. I love this line at the end.
...Doolittle and Pombo embody Washington's incestuous political culture.
It feels like the momentum is now solid for McNerney. First the
Bee comes out supporting McNerney, remember the Bee has been a supporter of Pombo for years, and now the Mercury News come out with this tough editorial. I predict that we are going to see more local rags in the central valley coming out against Pombo.
This good news has to be tempered with the natural conservatism in the district. We can't stop the hard work. Now that the race is even in the polls we have to focus on GOTV. Maximizing dem turnout is the key to capturing this seat. Unfortunately from my personal experience volunteering for the McNerney campaign and the anti-Pombo groups I see a lot of disorganization. There are a lot of volunteers on the east bay side of the district who seem to be running around and hitting the same voters over and over.
Meanwhile in the inland (valley) part of the district there are fewer volunteers and less GOTV going on. With a little over three weeks to go there in plenty of time to fix this. Some decisive decisions need to be made about allocating resources and more of the bay area volunteers need to be willing to travel a little further into the district.
Personally I am spending all my spare time and money and then some on this. I don't want to wake up on November 8th with a repug congrees because this district went for Pombo!