Future diaries about Jerry McNerney will not all be numbered in the Pombo series. But I wanted to include the following from the Stockton Record about McNerney's reception by other Congress members:
McNerney is a political novice - he's never been elected or appointed to anything - but once he introduces himself, everyone he meets knows him: He's the guy who toppled House Resources Committee Chairman Richard Pombo of Tracy, making Pombo the first committee chairman to fall in a decade.
"I'm very popular because of that," McNerney said Thursday.
I've read articles like the Stockton Record one (entitled McNerney Goes to Washington) which have compared the freshman from CA-11 to the Jimmy Stewart chacter in the classic film "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington". But that's a bit off the mark: Jerry McNerney earned a PhD in mathematics, and so should really be called Dr. McNerney. Dr. McNerney Goes to Washington has a different connotation, and should.
Today's Los Angeles Times has a terrific article profiling Congressman-elect Jerry McNerney. In it we learn that one of his new nicknames is "the dragon slayer", for defeating Pombo, and that he's still working on overcoming his fears of public speaking. (The most common phobia in the population at large, as it happens.) And he's not wasting much time getting to work on issues that he ran on: McNerney's already formed an ad hoc climate caucus amongst Congressional freshmen.
Here in the netroots, we can be pleased at what we have wrought (or helped to anyhow). The LA Time profiles McNerney as the most unlikely of candidates, much less victorious ones. And to my thinking, all the more valuable to have in Congress. Even moreso, when one considers the alternative was Pombo. It speaks well for our nation, and supplies some hope for the future.
Jerry McNerney always thought he would win his race for Congress. It's just that nobody else did. Why would anyone? He's a 55-year-old math wonk and wind energy expert who never even ran for class president. He likes to climb wind turbines.
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But there he was last week, standing on the Capitol steps with the other freshmen, eating hors d'oeuvres at the White House, a symbol of voter fury so extreme that even eggheads prevailed in this month's midterm election.
Another Stockton Record article tells us that McNerney was adequately gracious upon meeting Dubya:
McNerney said the highlight of his week was a Monday reception at the White House. When he met President Bush, the president said visiting Stockton's George W. Bush Elementary School was a high point of his presidency. Bush came to Stockton to raise money for Pombo in early October.
"I thanked him for coming out to my district," McNerney said.
One wonders what is says about Dubya that this was a "big deal". Does he really think so? Or was he just being "polite"? But McNerney's no fool on this point, as the LA Times reports:
Not intimidated by authority, he shook Bush's hand at the White House soiree and thanked the president and the first lady for visiting his district, which he believes helped him more than it helped Pombo.
McNerney's off too a good start, too, with an appointment to the Dems "Committee on Committees" that apportions committee assignments:
He has picked up his first plum post, too - a seat on the Democrats' policy and steering committee, which will guide House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the rest of the party leadership on who gets what committee assignment.
McNerney wants a spot on the Energy and Commerce Committee, which would mesh well with his skills as a renewable-energy expert. It is rare for a freshman to score a seat on the Energy and Commerce Committee, but being on the steering committee could help.
I honestly feel like I can breathe better, with this improvement to the Congress. McNerney's a real breath of fresh air, which is something the LA Times article commented on, too:
While the Pombo campaign flooded the airwaves with liberal-scare ads, McNerney maintained a smaller but persistent presence. Bigwigs began to take notice. Both national parties poured money into a race they had never expected to bother with. President Bush came to the district for Pombo, former President Clinton for McNerney. He and Clinton hung out together in an airplane hangar afterward, discussing wind.
McNerney volunteers seemed to be everywhere. The Saturday before election day, there were 1,039 of them on the streets.
He struggled with the occasional mixed metaphor, Caughlan recalled. One involved "climbing to the mountaintop and now it is rolling toward us!" But the voters didn't seem to care. They wanted anything but slick.
Meanwhile, Pombo's hopes that Blue Dog Democrat Dennis Cardoza (from Gary Condit's old seat, adjacent to CA-11) would carry forward his efforts to gut the Endangered Species Act are being dashed, too. Another Stockton Record article lists Cardoza's priorities, and ESA "reform" isn't on the top of the list. He's after an appointment on Agriculture, is a fiscal conservative, wants to expand stem cell research, and turns out to be a practicing fan of alternative energy himself:
Cardoza also wants to craft a bill that would use federal tax receipts generated from fossil fuel production to expand renewable-energy research, such as solar, wind or biofuels. Cardoza just installed solar power at his home in Atwater.
"I'm just so committed to getting us out of the Middle East, with our dependence on foreign oil," he said. "We have to come up with alternatives."
Today's San Francisco Chronicle reports that Pombo's in a snit over losing, and hasn't ruled out running for the seat again in 2008:
Pombo is still digesting the loss. In a wide-ranging interview, he used humor to deflect questions about how he's coping with his defeat. But his post-election sentiments are clear: He's furious at his opponents for the very personal campaign they waged against him, and he is still stunned because they pulled it off.
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Although his clout is diminished, Pombo remains chairman for a few weeks. He's still negotiating with senators over separate bills approved by the House and Senate to boost offshore drilling. The Senate bill, which Pombo dislikes because it opens only a limited area of the Gulf of Mexico to drilling, is seen by most lawmakers as the only bill with a chance to pass in the final days of this Congress.
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But his signature initiatives -- approving oil drilling in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and overhauling the Endangered Species Act -- stalled in Congress and are unlikely to be taken up by Democrats.
His likely successor as House Resources chairman, Rep. Nick Rahall, D-W.Va., praised Pombo for working closely with Democrats on the committee, although they often clashed over environmental issues. "He felt that some of the safeguards that have worked over the decades were not working," Rahall said. "I think the vast majority of Americans believe they are. That's a balance I'll seek to restore as chairman."
Good work everyone who helped with this nifty victory. It's something to be proud of, because I think we really have helped make a difference.