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Richard Pombo: The "Darth Vader" of the Environment
By Sarah Olson
t r u t h o u t | Report
Friday 13 October 2006
Candidates battle for political and ideological
leadership in California's contested 11th district.
Peter Petroski is a life-long Republican. He's currently campaigning in California's
11th district on behalf of Jerry McNerney - the Democratic challenger to 14-year
incumbent Richard Pombo. Petroski says he's motivated strictly by an "anybody
but Pombo" sentiment; he's grown weary of what he sees as a massive culture
of corruption in Washington, and is astounded by Richard Pombo's brazen thwarting
of ethics and of the law.
Petroski says the final straw was when Congressman Pombo proposed to sell off or privatize
15 National Parks. The proposal sparked outrage around the country, but for
Petroski the proposal had a local flair. One of the parks was near Danville,
California: 13 acres surrounding Tao House, where Eugene O'Neill lived in the
later years of his life and wrote some of his most famous plays, including Long
Day's Journey into Night, The Iceman Cometh, and A Moon for the Misbegotten.
It's a historic literary place, Petroski says, and one he couldn't fathom destroying.
Petroski is joined by an unlikely cast of characters, from retired general
Wesley Clark to Republican politicians Pete McCloskey and Tom Benigno, and from
veterans' organizations to the Sierra Club to Planned Parenthood.
These endorsements, coupled with a motivated grass-roots campaign to oust Richard
Pombo, make the Pombo/McNerney contest one of the tightest and most closely
watched races in the country.
The district stretches from the development-happy eastern outpost of Silicon
Valley in Dublin/Pleasanton, into the agricultural Central Valley, north to
Lodi and south to Gilroy. This is gorgeous Steinbeckian country, with rolling
hills and grass burnt golden brown under the California sun. It's home to two
federal prisons and a state institution. On a quiet day, as you drive over the
wind-mill dotted Altamont Pass, you can make out artillery fire from the military
base in Dublin. The district houses the Laurence Livermore National Laboratory,
practitioners of "science in the national interest." California's
booming agriculture and ranching businesses are located in the fecund Central
Valley.
The 11th district re-election race didn't start off as a tight race. It's a
famously conservative, even iconoclastic area, proudly distinguishing itself
from the liberal Bay Area. During an earlier election contest, Pombo supporters
handed out bags of granola to his challenger's supporters, suggesting they hailed
from Berkeley and San Francisco and were unwanted outsiders.
Congressman Pombo has held the seat since 1992. Back in the day, he ran as
a hometown boy who didn't like politicians. He's a conservative's conservative,
who won on a platform of private property rights, small government, and no-nonsense
taking care of business in Washington, DC. He's currently the chair of the powerful
House Resources Committee.
But many in California have begun to believe Pombo is too entwined with powerful
business interests, reaping enormous benefits for himself and his family, but
leaving the rest of California's 11th district out in the cold. Pombo has close
ties to the Jack Abramoff scandal. He doggedly supports an increasingly unpopular
Iraq war. He has enraged environmental groups around the nation, and offends
progressives on a whole host of social issues.
Enter Jerry McNerney. He's a wind energy consulted who lives in Dublin, California.
He's soft-spoken, perhaps kind of shy. He ran against Pombo in the last election
cycle, and lost. Since then, he's been walking precincts, developing a grass-roots
support base, and generally making friends. He advocates for an end to the Iraq
war sooner rather than later, and his son is in the military. He promises to
bring an end to the corruption scandals plaguing the nation. He is an environmentalist.
He's well spoken and erudite.
By nearly all accounts, McNerney's campaign is generating unprecedented, impressive
grass-roots support. People in the district are fired up and motivated in ways
political veterans have never seen before. McNerney supporters say they hear
passion and conviction from constituents determined to vote Richard Pombo out
of office.
Richard Pombo and Jerry McNerney are now neck and neck in the race for the
Congressional seat. Most polls show figures well within the margin of error
placing Pombo and McNerney in a statistical dead heat. It's an exciting race,
and supporters on both sides say it has national implications.
Combating a Washington "Culture of Corruption"
Perhaps the single most overwhelming sentiment you'll encounter when chatting
with people in the 11th district is disgust for "politics as usual."
People have grown tired of what they see as a political "culture of corruption."
Republican turned Jerry McNerney advocate Peter Petroski says uncontested power
has gone to the heads of Republicans in Congress. He doesn't even think it's
fair to describe Pombo as immoral. "In this case, I think he's amoral.
He doesn't see a problem with the things he's done."
Richard Pombo denies allegations of corruption, generally expressing exasperation
and dismay at what he calls a character assassination. He typically sidesteps
the specific allegation. "People are disillusioned by sleazy political
campaigns like the ones by our opponents," says Pombo's press secretary
Carl Fogliani. "Richard Pombo has focused on these issues, and on what
has been done in the 11th district." Fogliani says Pombo has done a fantastic
job bringing new resources into the 11th district, and that people are still
fired up about their hometown boy.
But Congressman Pombo is accused of a long list of questionable ethical behavior
and violations of the law. Increasingly, voters in California's 11th district
are insisting on accountability and explanations.
Foremost on the list is his connection to embattled lobbyist Jack Abramoff.
Melanie Sloan is the executive director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics
in Washington. The non-partisan group recently released a report detailing information
on a group of what they consider to be the most corrupt members of Congress,
Democrats and Republicans alike. According to Sloan, Pombo is a unique case.
"With Pombo, it's not just one thing. It's the sheer number of ethics violations.
He clearly doesn't recognize that the rules apply to him."
According to the report, Richard Pombo's campaign and political action committee
received over $400,000 from Indian tribes between 1999 and 2006. Jack Abramoff
represented many of the tribes. Though Pombo has long denied his ties to Abramoff,
the Associated Press reported Tuesday that "records show the disgraced
lobbyist billed a client for at least two contacts with Pombo a decade ago."
The AP announcement opens Pombo to renewed allegations of lying.
Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington also charge Pombo with
abusing power for financial benefit, interference in a pending federal banking
investigation, abuse of franking privileges, payments to family members, use
of federal funds for campaign expenses, privately funded foreign travel, use
of federal funds for personal travel, and inappropriate use and payment of committee
staff.
Highlights of his activities include using his power in the House Resources
Committee to subpoena confidential Federal Deposit Insurance Company (FDIC)
records in an investigation of Houston millionaire Charles Hurwitz. The FDIC
was forced to drop its investigation of Hurwitz's role in the 1980s collapse
of a Texas savings and loan costing tax payers $1.6 billion dollars. Hurwitz
contributed $1,000 to Pombo's 1996 re-election campaign.
In 2004, Pombo used federal franking privileges to mail 175,000 copies of a
leaflet praising the Bush administration and his own House Resources Committee
for overturning environmental limitations on snowmobiling in national parks.
The leaflets were sent to snowmobile owners in swing states Wisconsin and Minnesota
in October just before the presidential elections. The mailing cost nearly $70,000,
and was authorized as "official business." Pombo also authorized $500,000
of postage to distribute newsletters lauding his own work on the House Resources
Committee.
Pombo is also charged with a myriad of instances of using federal dollars for
personal and family gain. Allegations include his paying his wife and brother
a combined $350,000 out of his political fund, supporting policy benefiting
his own financial interests, taking lobbyist-funded trips to New Zealand and
Japan, and using over $4,000 of House Resources Committee funds for a family
vacation in 2003.
Democratic
challenger Jerry McNerney has seized upon the Richard Pombo
federal-dollars-for-personal-gain imbroglio. His campaign includes an
ethics pledge promising no secret meetings with lobbyists, and a
refusal of lobbyist funded travel and gifts. McNerney, who is new to DC
politics, presents voters with a viable chance to shake up the status
quo, says McNerney press secretary Robert Caughlan.
"As a student of political science, I believe there has never been a Congressional
scandal that equals the K Street Project and Abramoff scandals. This is without
a doubt the biggest Congressional scandal in history and in three weeks California's
11th district voters have a chance to do something about it," says Caughlan.
It's not just partisan politics that inspire this statement. Melanie Sloan agrees
corruption in Congress is at unprecedented levels and it may be responsible
for shifting control of Congress to the Democrats.
The "Darth Vader" of the Environment
Jerry McNerney is a wind energy consultant. He promises to bring a sensible
environmental and energy policy to Washington. But even if McNerney did not
have impeccable environmental credentials, he would win environmentalist support
anyway.
Environmental activists around the country and national organizations including
Sierra Club, the League of Conservation Voters, and the Defenders of Wildlife
Action Fund see McNerney as their last best chance to unseat someone they say
has wreaked havoc on the environment from the day he set foot in DC. As McNerney
press secretary Robert Caughlan puts it, "We all live in Richard Pombo's
district."
Congressman Pombo's environmental policies are numerous. "Pombo appears
to have set himself on a mission to destroy every major federal conservation
law we have on the books," says Rodger Schlickeisen, president of the Defenders
of Wildlife Action Fund. "Not only did he have a 'zero' on his wildlife
conservation report card, but he actively led efforts to: sell national parks
for commercial exploitation; create a massive oil industrial complex in the
Arctic refuge; remove the 25-year ban on drilling for oil and gas off our fragile
coastlines; eliminate the 11-year moratorium on selling federal lands to mining
companies; and - worst of all - effectively eliminate the federal government's
efforts to save and recover endangered wildlife." One supporter dubbed
Pombo the "Darth Vader" of the environment.
"We will do whatever it takes to unseat Pombo," says Ed Yoon, an
organizer with the Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund. The group has been working
furiously in the 11th district, walking precincts, knocking on doors, and turning
up at Pombo and McNerney events with a strong pro-McNerney message. They attend
all the major election events, heckling Pombo with environmental messages, and
cheering McNerney on.
"Pombo's policy of drilling, drilling, drilling for oil in the name of
energy autonomy destroys natural ocean habitat, creates significant oil spills,
and invests in more oil drilling rather than sensible and sustainable energy
alternatives," says Yoon. "His policy strengthens and enriches oil
companies, which perpetuates a cycle of environmental degradation."
Veterans in Support of Jerry McNerney
Iraq war politics is a dicey subject for California's 11th district. It's a
conservative area, and there are a lot of military families. Many of the 11th
district's young men and women are fighting in Iraq. Many living in the district
say the overwhelming sentiment is that in order to support the troops, you must
support the war. For these voters, Pombo's message of a tough stance on the
war on terror has real resonance.
Pombo touts the Republican Party line on the war on terror, while McNerney
vehemently insists on a new policy. Many challengers would find themselves facing
charges of being soft on terrorism and of not supporting the troops, but McNerney
escapes these allegations, in large part thanks to overwhelming veteran support.
McNerney's own son joined the military after September 11th, 2001.
At a recent community forum with Pombo and McNerney - the closest this district
will get to a debate - McNerney opened his remarks with the following:
The President and Congressional leaders used the tragic attacks
of 9/11 to drive us - a trusting and patriotic nation - into an unnecessary
war, allowing the vicious people who attacked our country to remain free, while
creating a dangerous and volatile situation in the Middle East. My opponent
is satisfied with the progress of the war in Iraq despite overwhelming evidence
that the war is actually making America less secure.
Pombo drew a thoroughly debunked connection between the September 11th attacks
and the war in Iraq. He insists the US must fight the war in on terror overseas,
otherwise "we will be fighting it here in the 11th district." Pombo
advocates a continuation of the Iraq war policy and securing the US borders.
Increasingly, Iraq war veterans are coming out in support of Jerry McNerney.
Tim Goodrich is an Air Force veteran and the executive director of Iraq Veterans
for Progress, which has endorsed the McNerney campaign. "The first thing
I noted about Pombo's platform is that he doesn't list the Iraq war as an issue
on his campaign or Congressional Web sites," said Goodrich. "That
should tell you where he stands on the issue. The second thing I noticed was
that McNerney has a son in the military and so he knows firsthand what the military
needs, and the risks to the military in staying in a war in which we don't belong."
While talking tough on the war on terror and the need to support troops, Pombo
alienated veterans' groups with his voting record. This record includes voting
against a pay raise for soldiers, against bonuses for the men and women fighting
in Iraq and Afghanistan, against paying for prosthetic devices for soldiers
who lost limbs in Iraq, and to cut $1.8 billion from veterans' health programs.
A Grab Bag of Conservative Policies
During Pombo's tenure as congressman, his voting record has endeared him to
conservative factions of all stripes. In addition to his array of environmental
positions, Pombo has taken traditional conservative positions at nearly every
opportunity.
In just the last two Congressional terms, Pombo voted in favor of requiring
colleges to give ROTC programs and military recruiters campus access. While
he has a tough line on immigration, he did support expediting posthumous citizenship
for soldiers killed in combat. He supported bills seeking to help Iran to "establish
democracy," allowing the use of force in Iraq, and seeking to assist internal
opposition in Cuba. He also co-sponsored a 2003 bill to end United States membership
in the United Nations.
Pombo earned the ire of pro-choice organizations when he supported the "fetal
pain" bill requiring physicians to notify women seeking abortions of the
possibility that a fetus would experience pain during the procedure. He also
supported the recent bill to prohibit traveling with minors across state lines
for the purpose of seeking abortions, and co-sponsored the so-called "partial-birth
abortion" bill.
Pombo supports a conservative religious agenda with his support of the federal
marriage amendment that defines marriage as between one man and one woman. Pombo
wants to protect the religious speech rights of churches in a bill that would
protect churches from losing their tax-exempt status for certain political speech,
and he co-sponsored a bill to "defend" the 10 commandments.
And finally, Pombo supports bills protecting gun manufacturers and distributors
from liability claims, making English the national language, and ending campaign
finance restrictions.
In connecting himself so closely to conservative Bush administration policies,
Pombo has garnered some support by the administration and its supporters. On
October 4th, President Bush held a fundraiser in Stockton, California, for Pombo's
re-election bid. The crowd paid a cool $250 per plate - a record low for a presidential
appearance. During the event, President Bush told the crowd: "Democrats
are the party of cut and run. Ours is a party that has got a clear vision."
It was during this same address that Bush enraged many by calling the civil
war, violence and devastation in Iraq a "comma" in history.
Time for a Change
It appears that voters in California's 11th district may be ready for change.
Bill Perkins is the president and founder of the Manteca Democrats club. His
group has been engaged in voter registration drives, and walks precincts nearly
every weekend.
In many areas, Perkins says people are disengaged. Many don't know there's
an election this year. Others are non-partisan, inactive, and busy with the
rest of their lives. But when it comes to supporting Pombo, Perkins says constituents
are angry. Perkins says people have a general sense that Pombo is dishonest,
that he's part of the problem in Washington. "Old-timers say that Pombo's
a crook, and that he's always been a crook. They say his entire family is corrupt,"
Perkins says.
But he's been noticing a change in voter engagement. McNerney is setting voters
on fire, Perkins says. "I've never seen anything like this. He inspires
people."
And it's not just Democrats who are calling for change. Peter Petroski, the
Republican backing the McNerney campaign, says the Republicans he's been talking
to are equally disenchanted with Pombo's performance. "People looking at
Congressman Pombo's record go from embarrassment to outrage," Petroski
says.
By all accounts, the test in this election will be a test of McNerney supporters'
ability to get out the vote. In the primary, voter turnout was at just above
30 percent. The disengagement and alienation experienced by voters in the district
will not necessarily spur them to the polls in November.
This Election Matters
It's understandable that voters may look askance at both major parties. The
Republicans - the party that recently eviscerated habeas corpus, justified torture,
is mired in a relentless and gruesome war on terror in two separate countries,
and is stuck in the middle of perhaps the biggest corruption scandal in Washington
history - has again become the party of values. The Democrats - the alleged
check to the Republican balances - have sat idly by while the Republicans passed
some of the most repressive legislation in history. Many voters are reasonably
concerned that electing Democrats to office will create little meaningful change.
Nonetheless, advocates are lobbying hard for voters in the 11th district to
engage in the political system. Melanie Sloan, of Citizens for Responsibility
and Ethics in Washington says: "We get the government we deserve. People
must demand answers about what Pombo has been doing and why he thinks it's acceptable.
If we're not paying attention, it's an endorsement of his activities."
According to Iraq Veterans for Progress's Tim Goodrich, "This may be the
most important election in people's lifetimes. The government is supposed to
be a system of checks and balances, and right now those checks and balances
are not in place." Changing the political regime in Washington, many believe,
is an important first step to ending the belligerent assault on civil liberties
domestically, and the attack on entire nations abroad.
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Sarah Olson is an independent radio producer and freelance journalist
based in Oakland, California. She can be reached at solson75@yahoo.com.
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