Jerry McNerney picked up the San Jose Mercury News endorsement (Hat tip to Jerry’s Blog).  The Mercury News also endorsed Pete McCloskey over Pombo in the Republican Primary.  It’s not particularly hard to see how the editorial board feels about Pombo: Any of the candidates, even Republican McCloskey is better than Pombo.

Even before he became associated with the sleaze surrounding disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff, even before he was accused of taking a family vacation on the government’s dime and even before a watchdog group called him one of the 13 most corrupt members of Congress, it was clear that Richard Pombo had to go.

The conservative seven-term Republican congressman from Tracy has a record of radical anti-environmentalism that has imperiled the nation’s natural resources, is wrong for the country and is out of step with a state that’s known for its environmental leadership.
***
On the Democratic side, two good candidates have emerged as leading contenders. Neither Jerry McNerney, 54, an engineer and wind-energy consultant from Pleasanton, nor Steve Filson, 59, a United Airlines pilot and retired U.S. Navy commander from Danville, has held elected office. But both bring good ideas and have energized various Democratic Party constituencies. Of the two, we find McNerney’s message more compelling.(SJ Mercury News 5/8/06)

The editorial gives good reviews and descriptions of all three competitors to Pombo.  The choice is a bit muddled now, but we know what needs to happen.  Richard Pombo must go.

As, I’ve written here, I think McNerney will be a better candidate because of his connections to the grassroots.  The national party will support him this time if he wins the primary. They have to, they smell blood in the water all around Pombo.  McNerney will bring the assets of the grassroots to bear against Pombo.  This year it will be enough to take that seat back from the radical anti-environmentalist Richard Pombo.

And in a complete rejection to the “You’ve had your chance” line of “thinking”, the Mercury News touts the fact that McNerney has run against Pombo before:

McNerney ran against Pombo in 2004 and got 39 percent of the vote, despite receiving no support from the state or national Democratic Party and being massively outspent by Pombo. That experience should come in handy in November.

Over the weekend, the CA-11 delegates at the convention endorsed Jerry McNerney over Steve Fillson:

It wasn’t only Angelides that walked out of the convention with a coveted endorsement.

So did Jerry McNerney, one of three Democrats running for the nomination in the high-profile Congressional District 11 race against incumbent Richard Pombo, R-Tracy.

McNerney scored 21 of the 28 votes cast by party delegates, an indisputable victory that produced a wide smile on the face of this serious Ph.D. engineer from Pleasanton.

It was a minor step for the Democratic Party but a giant leap for McNerney, a candidate whom national party leaders have spurned as unlikely to triumph over Pombo. McNerney, a wind energy consultant, is too liberal to win critical votes in the conservative San Joaquin County, they say, and besides, he already lost to Pombo in 2004. (CC Times 5/1/06)

I’ve written some about this, as have many others. But, as you may know, Filson has the support of many, many Congressmen, especially Tauscher.  McNerney does not.  In fact the most recognizable names on McNerney’s endoresment list is Liz Figueroa, who is running her own quixotic campaign for Lt. Governor, and Johan Klehs, who is in a dogfight of a race for SD-10. McNerney has become, almost out of necessity, a man of the grassroots.  Whether this is right or wrong is an entirely different question.  Over at Down with Tyranny, Howie has a particularly scathing (and mighty insightful) post about this particular subject:

You see, Emanuel’s DCCC has taken the extraordinary step of anointing a weak, former Republican, Steve Filson, who has nothing much to say beyond “Pombo is bad,” in the midst of a spirited Democratic primary that features an exemplary grassroots, progressive candidate, massively favored by Democrats throughout the San Joaquin Valley (CA-11), Jerry McNerney.

Emanuel and his henchmen– like Steny Hoyer and the agendaless, desperate-to-be-the-first-woman-Speaker-please-let-me-Rahm-I’ll-do-anything Nancy Pelosi– have been trying to make Filson’s candidacy seem inevitable. But, unlike in many districts where their tactics have worked, Democrats in the 11th CD are too independent and feisty for them and have only pushed back harder against the anti-grassroots, anti-progressive, Inside-the-Beltway Democratic power elite. Filson’s pathetic candidacy, despite all the big name Beltway-ites behind him, just has not taken off. McNerney just keeps getting stronger and stronger. (DownWithTyranny! 4/30/2006)

Ultimately the relevant question is when should the national party intervene in local Congressional races? 

More on the flip…

Ok, so I should disclose that my prefernce for CA-11 would be a longtime legislator for the Stockton area who has a history at winning tightly-contested races in the area.  However, that isn’t going to happen, at least this time around.

Now that I have that out of the way, I would like to focus on the reasons that this race is getting nasty.  If you look at the DCCC’s website archive, you get an idea of how Filson’s troubles with the grassroots began in a quote from kid oakland on the site:

Hi, kid oakland here.

I’ve got a couple questions. Is this an endorsement of Steve Filson by the DCCC? At what point would those of us who have supported Jerry McNerney get to have a say?

I’d also like to know what Steve Filson’s statement of being a “social moderate” means.

And the “social moderate” stuff that k/o talks about?  Well, here’s a sampling:

There is quite a bit of dissatisfaction with voters on both sides, Republicans and Democrats, Filson said. What we need is a centrist candidate to appeal to folks in the middle. (Tri-Valley Herald 9/30/05)

Oh, really, that’s what we need?  Somebody to triangulate the views of others into one completely contradictory bullshit set of ideological nothingness?  Yeah, we’ve seen how well radical moderatism has played.  It’s really brought us all three branches of government into a place where we want them.  We’ll really win people over with how much like the Republicans we are. 

So, without discussion from grassroots, Tauscher hand selects a candidate.  And, strangely enough, Pelosi follows by appearating at events and giving him $2000. They endorse him and send him out on the road with pockets full of Washington cash to challenge Pombo.

But, wait, McNerney, the 2004 Dem nominee is still running.  But, the DCCC thinks that he’s already had his shot.  Yeah?  Really?  Did anybody throw fancy soirees for McNerney with the Democrat leader?  Was 2004 really a fair fight between Pombo and McNerney?  What 2004 showed the grassroots was that McNerney fought for a cause, when most others were ignoring it.  And the grassroots has shown loyalty to McNerney.

The endorsement of the CDP is just one more black eye for the DCCC.  CA-11 is a challenging, but not an unwinnable, race.  The district has changed enough in the last 10 years that a challenge to Pombo is possible.  The DCCC needs to better utilize people on the ground in the districts.  Ask them who they want.  In districts like this, the grassroots support is imperative in the general.  GOTV efforts will be completely unsuccessful if the candidate has challenged and demoralized the base.

I’m not as harsh of a critic of the DCCC as others are.  I think it serves a vital role in winning races.  Ok, occasionally they will have to farm for candidates. But when there are popular candidates already there, they need to work with them first before they start shopping for other inexperienced candidates.

( – promoted by SFBrianCL)

The battle is getting hot and heavy in the quest to take Pombo out of office in CA-11.  Jerry McNerney, who lost to Pombo in 2004, has been getting most of the “grassroots” endorsements, such as DFA, East Bay Young Democrats, and also recently picked up the SEIU’s endorsement.

Steve Filson, on the other hand, is a political novice, but brings to bear a lot of Democratic heavy hitters (remind you of any other race…see below).  He’s supported  by a bevy of Congressman, most notably Congresswoman Ellen Tauscher, state officials, including Don Perata,  and many of the Democratic politicos around the district (including the longtime State Senator from Stockton, Patrick Johnston).  This has lead to a substantial money advantage, as Filson has been able to tap traditional Washington funding sources. 

There are better people to tell you about Pombo, such as Say No to Pombo, where Matt is doing an excellent job, but you’ll find that almost universally that they will work for either candidate if it means a Pombo defeat.  But a victory in this race is going to require a lot of manpower.  Pombo will have a huge financial advantage against either candidate, and having people at the grassroots will help.  But, for some reason, Filson, after losing these endorsements, he has been on something of a tear against the grassroots. From Progressive 11 Blog:

Steve Filson criticized the grassroots group’s that have endorsed Jerry McNerney for Congress as being “extreme.” He in particular focused his attack on Bay Area progressive’s at the forum in Richard Pombo’s home town of Tracy, Ca. (Prog-11) 4/25/06

I’m not sure what Filson was thinking, but this can in no way be a helpful tactic to him.  He angers the left, who increase turnout in the primary to defeat him, or if he wins, he loses the foot soldiers.  I’m not sure what he’s trying to pull here, but it’s completely unproductive.