With the primary election drawing nearer, the maddawg and I have fired up Say No To Pombo again. Today's post honoring the LCV to nominating Pombo again to their Dirty Dozen list.
Now, the 48-year-old Republican is thinking about a return to Congress - in George Radanovich's 19th Congressional District.
"I started getting phone calls last night," Pombo said today. "Obviously, I haven't made my mind up on it at all, but it is something that I am considering." (Fresno Bee)
Now, don't expect Jeff Denham to simply stand aside for Pombo, and Rep. Radanovich likely won't change his endorsement. After all, Pombo does have some strikes against him. He's a bit of a carpetbagger in this seat, and oh yeah, there are the ethics issues still clouding his record. I'm not sure that voters are really looking to find somebody who has a history with Abramoff.
That being said, Pombo's crazy record, and possible renewal of seniority within the Republican caucus, could be a draw to Republican voters. Don't count him out yet. Maybe SayNoToPombo needs to make a comeback.
I learn a little every day. Today, I had another reminder that when you dig through the muck, the slime rises to the top. This item at rawstory ties Prop 8, the move to hide al donations from public purview, and the connection between a Christian Reconstructionist named Howard Ahmanson and a political consultant named Wayne Johnson.
In an email to supporters this week, Pete McCloskey tried to close the book on the Revolt of the Elders.
Now Hastert is leaving, DeLay has left, Ney is in jail, Pombo has been dethroned by Jerry McNerney, and now Doolittle is leaving. The lesson (to be pondered by the new Democrat majority): "Power indeed corrupts."
The Hill is reporting that friends and colleagues - including former Rep. Richard Pombo - are urging John Doolittle to resign.
Republican operatives fear that if Doolittle does not retire at the end of this Congress and survives what would be a bruising GOP primary, they will lose the nine-term lawmaker's seat. Doolittle is under an ethics cloud, having had his Virginia house investigated by the FBI last year. Several prominent Republicans are seeking to defeat him in the primary.
According to three well-placed Republican sources, former Rep. Richard Pombo (R-Calif.) - who lost his seat amid ethics allegations - has called on longtime friend Doolittle to not seek reelection in the interest of keeping the district a GOP stronghold. In the last Congress, Pombo was a panel chairman while Doolittle was a member of GOP leadership.
This suggests that the decision has not yet been made by Doolittle, but that the GOP establishment has a definite interest in telling everybody that he's decided to resign to force the issue. Of course, California Republicans have been calling on Doolittle to be a good soldier and step down for quite a while, so it's unclear how much of this is new news. It remains to be seen what will happen, and I'll wait to see what the man himself will say.
dengre at DailyKos, who has been tracking the Northern Marianas Islands-Tom Delay scandal like a bloodhound, has an excellent diary up. I recommend reading it, but the key element for California politics is that Jerry McNerney is standing strong against corrupt lobbyists.
Basic upshot is that Jerry raised hell about FroshPAC, the PAC dedicated to re-electing our 41 Freshman Democrats in Congress, hiring an uber-lobbyist with ties to the "Pirates of Saipan" to run the PAC. Jerry was adamant about refusing to take money from the PAC until the lobbyist was let go--and Jerry won, as the lobbyist in question, William Oldaker, was just let go.
Score yet another one for Jerry, who continues to stand strong on principle and make CA-11 proud.
Yesterday, I received two letters from Congressman McNerney thanking me for two separate contributions. But those will probably be my last. Pombo isn't running and McNerney just voted to stay in Iraq. When you vote worse than Ellen Tauscher on the most important issue of the day, I really don't see how I can have respect for anything else you do. I think Ezra explained this concept well:
But not all issues are created equal. In the opinion of the netroots, if you opposed eliminating dividend taxation and drilling in ANWR but enthusiastically supported the war in Iraq--and appear incapable of really repenting or learning from that error--you are not 66 percent liberal and thus an ally; you were and are wrong on the preeminent issue of our time.
This should have been an easy yea vote, for the life of me I can't understand why McNerney screwed up.
UPDATE: Stoller says, "That's a pretty good number of progressives, and a good showing. And now we have people on the record for or against the war." Indeed.
Atrios has a list of freshmen Dems who voted against this. [...] Most of the new Dems backed the amendment, including every winner on the netroots page except McNerney (who is losing his base).
Stoller might be right about McNerney losing his base.
(In Orange and In Blue. Please give out some rec lovin! Oh, and at Facebook - promoted by Brian Leubitz)
Join us on April 27th for a very special Blue House at the Brew House Blograiser to benefit the campaigns of Representative Jerry McNerney (CA-11) and Lt. Col. Charlie Brown (soon to replace John Doolittle as the representative of California's 4th District). This is a production of California's blogger community (and our now moth-infested pockets), and we encourage everyone to come out and enjoy great food, delicious San Diego microbrews, and a big step towards making California even more Blue!
Former Republican Congressman Pete McCloskey, who once represented San Mateo and who lives now in Rumsey, in Yolo County, finally came to the conclusion that I made a decade or so ago, that the only place for a liberal Republican is in the Democratic party. This comes in the wake of McCloskey coming out of retirement to run against Richard Pombo in 2006, and then endorsing Democratic candidate Jerry McNerney in the general. In a searing email sent to the Contra Costa Times, McCloskey laid out the reasons why he has given up on the party his family had belonged to since 1853:
I registered Republican in 1948 after reaching the age of 21. We were the party of civil rights, of free choice for women and fiscal responsibility. Since Teddy Roosevelt, we had favored environmental protection, and most of all we stood for fiscal responsibility, honesty, ethics and limited government intrusion into our personal lives and choices. We accepted that one the duties of wealth was to pay a higher rate of income tax, and that the estates of the wealthy should contribute to the national treasury in reasonable measure.
[...]
In 1994, however, Newt Gingrich brought a new kind of Republicanism to power, and the election of George W. Bush in 2000 has led to wholly new concept of governance. The bureaucracy has mushroomed in size and power. The budget deficits have become astronomical. Our historical separation of church and state has been blurred. We have seen a succession of ethical scandals, congressmen taking bribes, and abuse of power by both the Republican House leadership and the highest appointees of the White House.
So why the heck should you listen to me now? Well, I'd like to tell you why it's so important that we keep this experienced problem-solver in Congress. Would you like to hear more? Well, follow me after the flip for it...
(Part of our week-long series on CA-04 and CA-11 as we head into the end of the fundraising quarter. Think about throwing them a few bucks. - promoted by Brian Leubitz)
Well, what if I told you that if John Doolittle, Richard Pombo, and Guy Houston had their way, we wouldn't have ANY OF THIS. Don't believe me? Well, follow me after the flip to see what would happen to the natural beauty of our state, our nation, and OUR PLANET, if these anti-environment right-wing extremists had their way... (video now over the flip-Brian)
Blog Roundup through last night. We've added a new feature. So that people who might subscribe by email or only to the blog roundup feed can see what folks are writing here, at the bottom, you'll now find a listing of Calitics posts.
Teasers: Phil Angelides, Fabian Núñez, Jerry McNerney, Paid-For Pombo, Gary Miller, Pete Stark, Dennis Cardoza, transportation, fisheries, water, more sock-puppetry, 8th AD, and more.
If you thought it was hard for Jerry McNerney to unseat Pombo in 2006, just wait until 2008...
Or not, especially since the Republicans are already laying the groundwork to retake the 11th District.
Remember the old House Resources Cmte's website? You know, the one saying that global warming is a bunch of myths (Archive here). Well, it's gone now. In its place is a new (and pretty boring) template site. But, instead of spreading anti-environment corporatist propaganda, now it's main headline questions the "senseless slaughter of wild horses."
Just one more ding-dong, the witch is dead moment for you courtesy of Jerry McNerney. UPDATE: So, yeah, it's still online as the minority site. Pretty funny, it even still lists Richard Pombo as the Chairman. Haha.
A few lingering election recaps are trickling in, I guess that stuff is still interesting, right? Also, some Iraq war protests, local politics, some CA-11 stories, and education news.
Sorry, it looks like there won't be an Odds and Ends today. But, how sad is this:
Annette Pombo wants her husband home. Because of last week's election, that's right where he's going.
"She's got a list, a long list, of stuff that needs to be done," Richard Pombo said with a laugh Wednesday afternoon.(SacBee 11/16/06)
Awww...that's so sad. And oh, it turns out that Pombo didn't really like that job after all. So, ha, Jerry, you did Pombo a favor. Richard gets the last laugh after all!
"I always felt that what I did was very important," Pombo said, but "I was never crazy about the job."
And I was never crazy about the way you did your job.
Jerry McNerney (D) will unseat Rep. Richard Pombo (R). Our sources on the ground tell us that momentum is firmly in McNerney's court and that late campaign help from Bill Clinton and scores of environmental groups is giving Resources Committee Chair Pombo a run for his money. Schwarzenegger's get-out-the-vote operation may yet save Pombo, but we will go out on a limb and tap McNerney to win in an upset.
Sabato also thinks Doolittle will squeak by in the Fourth, let's show him his crystal ball was a bit foggy on that one.
, it comes out tomorrow.