{"id":10859,"date":"2010-01-05T01:46:40","date_gmt":"2010-01-05T01:46:40","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2010-01-05T01:46:40","modified_gmt":"2010-01-05T01:46:40","slug":"california-will-have-to-say-no-to-pombo-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/calitics.com\/index.php\/2010\/01\/05\/california-will-have-to-say-no-to-pombo-again\/","title":{"rendered":"California Will Have To Say No To Pombo Again"},"content":{"rendered":"

It’s been rumored for a few days now, but today it’s been confirmed: Richard Pombo, the far-right member of Congress beaten by Jerry McNerney in a memorable 2006 contest, is running to replace George Radanovich in CA-19<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Pombo confirmed his upcoming candidacy to McClatchy Newspapers, saying he looks forward to getting back into politics. He previously represented the 11th Congressional District, which includes Tracy and much of San Joaquin County.<\/p>\n

“I do miss the policy issues,” he said. “A lot of the things that I worked on while I was there are very similar.”…<\/p>\n

His home in the Tracy area isn’t in the new district he wants to serve. But Pombo said the boundary is just a few miles from his property and the issues are the same. Water is a defining issue for both districts, he said.<\/p>\n

“It’s all California water issues,” he said. “They are very complicated, but it’s all the same issues I’ve dealt with for years.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In other words, Pombo is going to revive his anti-Endangered Species Act shtick in order to try and win votes on the east side of the Valley – a place that actually hasn’t had the same kind of water issues as the Westside has. Still, the framing of the water wars is one of farmers vs. hippies, so Pombo thinks he can still get some mileage out of this in the Sierra foothills.<\/p>\n

Of course, Pombo isn’t going to have it so easy. The same progressive and netroots forces that beat him in ’06 are already starting to put the band back together. Talking Points Memo offers a comprehensive list of his ethical challenges<\/a>, while Matt Ortega, a veteran of the ’06 netroots mobilization against Pombo, is tweeting #dickpombofacts<\/a> from his account, @MattOrtega<\/a>, including these gems:<\/p>\n

Richard Pombo’s 2006 campaign kickoff turned out ZERO people. NONE #dickpombofacts http:\/\/bit.ly\/6SNvlq<\/a><\/p>\n

Richard Pombo once tried selling 15 national parks: http:\/\/bit.ly\/8GMsIP<\/a> #dickpombofacts<\/p>\n

Richard Pombo lied about contacts with Jack Abramoff, said he was never lobbied: http:\/\/bit.ly\/8YtZaT<\/a> #dickpombofacts<\/p>\n

George Bush, Dick Cheney and John Boehner all campaigned for Pombo in 2006, and he still lost by almost 6 points #dickpombofacts<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And as for the presumed GOP advantage in CA-19, Matt Ortega had this to say about what happened in CA-11 in 2006:<\/p>\n

CA-11 went from safe GOP to lean Dem takeover in about six or seven months #dickpombofacts<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Pombo still has to contend with Jeff Denham, who so far has shown no sign of wanting to jump out of yet another primary to make way for another candidate – at some point you might think Denham would tire of being the California GOP’s sloppy seconds – but the bigger point is that Pombo has already once motivated progressives and netroots to destroy his career. He probably thinks they can’t do it again in 2010. If so, he’s being as reckless now as he was four years ago.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It’s been rumored for a few days now, but today it’s been confirmed: Richard Pombo, the far-right member of Congress beaten by Jerry McNerney in a memorable 2006 contest, is running to replace George Radanovich in CA-19<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Pombo confirmed his upcoming candidacy to McClatchy Newspapers, saying he looks forward to getting back into politics. He previously represented the 11th Congressional District, which includes Tracy and much of San Joaquin County.<\/p>\n

“I do miss the policy issues,” he said. “A lot of the things that I worked on while I was there are very similar.”…<\/p>\n

His home in the Tracy area isn’t in the new district he wants to serve. But Pombo said the boundary is just a few miles from his property and the issues are the same. Water is a defining issue for both districts, he said.<\/p>\n

“It’s all California water issues,” he said. “They are very complicated, but it’s all the same issues I’ve dealt with for years.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In other words, Pombo is going to revive his anti-Endangered Species Act shtick in order to try and win votes on the east side of the Valley – a place that actually hasn’t had the same kind of water issues as the Westside has. Still, the framing of the water wars is one of farmers vs. hippies, so Pombo thinks he can still get some mileage out of this in the Sierra foothills.<\/p>\n

Of course, Pombo isn’t going to have it so easy. The same progressive and netroots forces that beat him in ’06 are already starting to put the band back together. Talking Points Memo offers a comprehensive list of his ethical challenges<\/a>, while Matt Ortega, a veteran of the ’06 netroots mobilization against Pombo, is tweeting #dickpombofacts<\/a> from his account, @MattOrtega<\/a>, including these gems:<\/p>\n

Richard Pombo’s 2006 campaign kickoff turned out ZERO people. NONE #dickpombofacts http:\/\/bit.ly\/6SNvlq<\/a><\/p>\n

Richard Pombo once tried selling 15 national parks: http:\/\/bit.ly\/8GMsIP<\/a> #dickpombofacts<\/p>\n

Richard Pombo lied about contacts with Jack Abramoff, said he was never lobbied: http:\/\/bit.ly\/8YtZaT<\/a> #dickpombofacts<\/p>\n

George Bush, Dick Cheney and John Boehner all campaigned for Pombo in 2006, and he still lost by almost 6 points #dickpombofacts<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And as for the presumed GOP advantage in CA-19, Matt Ortega had this to say about what happened in CA-11 in 2006:<\/p>\n

CA-11 went from safe GOP to lean Dem takeover in about six or seven months #dickpombofacts<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Pombo still has to contend with Jeff Denham, who so far has shown no sign of wanting to jump out of yet another primary to make way for another candidate – at some point you might think Denham would tire of being the California GOP’s sloppy seconds – but the bigger point is that Pombo has already once motivated progressives and netroots to destroy his career. He probably thinks they can’t do it again in 2010. If so, he’s being as reckless now as he was four years ago.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1990],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10859","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-1990"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6Pvhz-2P9","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/calitics.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10859","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/calitics.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/calitics.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calitics.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calitics.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10859"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/calitics.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10859\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/calitics.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10859"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calitics.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10859"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calitics.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10859"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}