Former Republican congressman Richard Pombo to run for California House seat

[struggle4progress]

The 14-year House veteran, who lost a reelection bid in 2006 after corruption allegations and opposition by environmentalists, would face state Sen. Jeff Denham, among others, in a GOP primary.
Richard Pombo

Richard Pombo came under attack for ties to convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff and for putting family members on his campaign payroll. (Robert Durell / Los Angeles Times / May 15, 2006)

By Richard Simon

January 5, 2010 | 8:14 p.m

Reporting from Washington - Introducing a bit of drama into a usually lackluster California House race, Richard W. Pombo, a former Republican congressional heavyweight who was defeated in a reelection bid in 2006, plans to try for a political comeback -- in a different district than the one in which he lost.

The one-time House Resources Committee chairman is running for the Central Valley seat being vacated by Rep. George Radanovich (R-Mariposa), setting up a GOP primary battle against state Sen. Jeff Denham and former Fresno Mayor Jim Patterson. Former California Secretary of State Bill Jones is said to be considering entering the race, too. The district is strongly Republican ...

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-pombo6-2010jan06,0,6719047.story

This guy was a dirtbag

[tularetom]

1. This is my district and while I'm not unhappy to lose that dolt Radanovich

the last person I'd want to see replace him is that fucking Pombo, who is not only a free enterprise/property rights zealot, but quite possibly corrupt. As a sportsman, I resent his push for privatization of publicly held lands and closure for recreational uses like hunting camping and fishing. If it were up to him, every acre of forest in the sierra would be sold off to lumber comanies and closed to the public, and eventually every tree removed. Millions of acres of habitat lost. Thousands of pissed off hunters.

There is no chance in hell of electing a Democrat from this gerrymandered district, so I guess the thing to do is register republican, hold my nose, and go to the polls and vote for Jeff Denham, another dumshit in the Radanovich mold and another carpetbagger (he was a termed out state senator in an adjacent district), just to keep Pombo away from where he can fuck up anymore public lands.

[mackerel]

2. Absolute asshole and I'm being kind.

[Auggie]

9. +1: Tried to dismantle the Endangered Species Act...

He's not in my district, but I sent to money to McNerney (D) in 2006 to defeat him anyhow.

I urge everyone here to send what they can to keep this fuck out of Congress

[struggle4progress]

3. Here in NC, I literally jumped for joy back in 2006 when I saw y'all booted Pombo

[tularetom]

4. Can't take credit for that of course, he wasn't in our district at the time

Pombo formerly represented the 11th district where the voters are apparently smarter than they are here, since they are the ones who canned his ass in 06. If he got his foot in the door in D19, we'd be stuck with him for years, this is a VERY republican district with no major cities (except a portion of the infamous city of Fresno) and a generous proportion of us hill folk, most of whom are so anti government that you could consider them libertarian.

[padia]

5. all the more reason to go get busy

let me fly my flag again Fresno is going to go door to door to register Dems in the 19th on the 16th. In May there was a 7% gap repug favor, late '09 Chris Parker who is running for the Board of Equalization said district wide he has seen a 2% shift that gave Dems a 0.6% advantage. Fresno has cut its margin in 1/2 since May & there is a Cal-voter office in Senate District 12. I do not know how the Merced office is doing but the Fresno Cal-voter office is moving numbers around 1,200 a month. Granted both of these district (12&16) cover more than CD19, but with the numbers most likely being under 5% a good solid effort & a good GOTV. CD 19 is doable for Dems especially if the repugs are going to run a "I'm more conservative than him" type of campaign.

[Xithras]

7. I'm glad you think that way, but I doubt you're right.

CA-19 is a demonstration of gerrymandering at its finest. Fresno, in the grand scale of the district, is largely irrelevant because most of the districts voters reside in the foothills or in the rural (and extremely conservative) valley flatlands. You could turn Fresno 100% Democratic, and the slice in CA19 still wouldn't be big enough to swing the rest of the district. That was the idea when the district was drawn...to nullify the potentially liberal voting habits of the larger city by shaving off a portion of it and assigning it to a more conservative overall district. The same pattern can be seen throughout the "conservative" valley districts, and every larger city from Stockton to Bakersfield is split this way. You are also simply looking at registration numbers, which is silly in this area...the Central Valley is heavily populated by church-going conservative Democrats who regularly vote Republican. Half the Democrats I know in this area are anti-abortion and won't support pro-choice candidates of any party, and the overwhelming majority are gun owning NRA members. This isn't a party-line kind of place.

I live in the northern reaches of CA-19 north of Modesto where support for Democratic candidates is very weak, and some of the larger communities in this area (like Oakdale) are well known conservative strongholds. Democratic canvassers were publically spit on in that area in the fairly recent past for supporting Obama. This is hostile territory for liberals.

There's a reason why our party often doesn't even bother to run candidates in this district, and why the party rarely supports candidates with state or federal funds. It's not seen as a winnable fight.

Reality sucks, but here it is: There are two potential ways we can win 19. The Republicans have already started their "I'm more teabagger than you" fight, and it's starting to get ugly. Fist, if one of the LESS conservative candidates (like Denham) wins the Republican primary, the teabaggers have already stated that they'll be running a MORE conservative candidate against him in the general election. That opens up the possibility of a split vote. If we can find a good moderate Democrat to run against them (a real liberal couldn't win this ditrict under any circumstances), we might be able to shave off enough of the conservative Democratic voters to eke out a victory. The second possibility is that a hardcore conservative Republican (like Pombo) wins the primary and runs in the general unopposed. In that case, a genuine conservative blue dog Democrat could easily shave off the less conservative Democratic voters AND many of the more liberal Republicans in this area (yes, they do exist), which also might deliver a winnable margin. This is how Cardoza and Condit (both card carrying Blue Dogs...Condit actually helped found the Blue Dog Coalition) have kept a grip on CA-18 all these years. The Republicans run hardcore reich-wingers, and the conservative Democrats present themselves as the "conservative but more moderate" choice.

My concern is that we don't really have any moderate or conservative Democrats groomed to run in this district who are ready to fight for the seat, and more importantly, strongly doubt that such a candidate would receive any real financial support from the state or federal parties if they did declare. The party doesn't often throw money at races it sees as losers, and this particular race is a long shot in the best of circumstances.

[Brother Buzz]

6. The newly minted Democrat, Pete McCloskey, hates Pombo

McCloskey came out of retirement to run against the ass, Pombo, in the last 11th district primary and lost, but not without inflicting wounds that ultimately weakened the ass in the general election. I don't expect Pete to run against him now, but I do hope he visits the district and does some excellent stumping for the Democratic contender. The one thing McCloskey has in spades is credibility; people listen to him, even conservative ranchers.

Don't mess with Pete McCloskey's legacy legislation, The 1973 Endangered Species Act!

Oh, conveniently, the Northern Mariana Islands is back in the news, and maybe Pombo can finally answer some questions about it, that, and his true involvement with Abramoff while in the official capacity as Chairman of The House Committee on Resources.

Pombo is a punk that needs to be taken to the woodshed.

[CreekDog]

8. This is good news

I think running is exactly what he should start doing. :hide: