Free Republic

SINCE THE 11TH Congressional District was redrawn to include suburban parts of the Bay Area, Rep. Richard Pombo has faced stronger challenges from Democrats. This year turned out to be a particularly tough race against Pleasanton wind energy consultant Jerry McNerney. McNerney was not the choice of the Democratic Party in the primary. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee viewed him as too liberal for the district and refused to include him in its fundraising program. Like many politicians from both parties, McNerney has moved toward the center after the primary. He, in fact, changed answers to 55 questions on a...

LINKS TO disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff, efforts to gut wildlife protections and sell off national parks, and a blessing to offshore oil drilling. That's the profile of U.S. Rep. Richard Pombo. In seven prior elections, the Tracy Republican has had an easy time. He's run low-profile races in a GOP-leaning district that straddles the low hills separating the Bay Area and the San Joaquin Valley. But this time his ethical stumbles and radical positions should catch up with him. His opponent, engineer Jerry McNerney brings a low-key probity that the district and House deserve. Pombo's positions are simply out of...

Tracy Republican Richard Pombo took office vowing to change the Endangered Species Act. In the 14 years since, he's delivered speeches, staged events and written bills. He's enjoyed perfect positions to pursue his signature issue, including, for the past four years, chairmanship of the House Resources Committee while his party has controlled both the House and the Senate. The Endangered Species Act, though, remains unchanged since the day Pombo took office in January 1993. The same 22,300 words in the U.S. Code then are intact today. Which raises the fundamental election-year question: Why is it so hard to change this...

BERKELEY — The congressional fundraiser was at a pub in the heart of this liberal political stronghold. A local band, The Flux, entertained with a tune titled "Impeach the President." The focus of attention: two candidates vying for seats in bedrock conservative districts to the east, currently occupied by Republicans John T. Doolittle of Granite Bay and Richard W. Pombo of Tracy. Although most experts still give them a narrow edge, Doolittle, 55, seeking his ninth term, and Pombo, 45, pursuing his eighth, are in the toughest fights of their political careers going into the Nov. 7 election. Their Northern...

The Democratic challenger to Republican Rep. Richard Pombo on Monday said the congressman should demand the resignation of House Speaker Dennis Hastert over his role in the congressional page scandal. Democrat Jerry McNerney also said Pombo should return any money Hastert, R-Ill., had raised for him in the past. McNerney's demands come as the page scandal is roiling Congress a month before the Nov. 7 election, when Democrats hope to take control of the House. Republican Rep. Mark Foley resigned from his Florida congressional seat after it was reported that he had sent suggestive e-mails and instant messages to teenage...

TRACY - Middle ground went unclaimed Thursday night as Rep. Richard Pombo, R-Tracy, sparred with Democratic challenger Jerry McNerney for the 11th District House seat in a charged, partisan debate before a lively crowd, many of them McNerney supporters eager to shake the seven-term GOP stalwart with shouts and accusations. The debate drew a crowd of more than 300 people to watch the two candidates trade barbs from low plastic chairs on a grade-school stage in the heart of "Pombo Country." It was the lone debate between the two candidates vying for a House district that stretches from Danville to...

President Bush traveled to California today to speak at fundraisers for Congressmen Richard Pombo and John Doolittle. Later, the president visited with the students and faculty at the nearby George W. Bush Elementary School, named in his honor. Click here for the complete transcript at the Pombo fundraiser. And click here for the president’s remarks during the school visit. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld met with Nicaraguan President Enrique Bolanos and Latin American defense ministers in Managua, Nicaragua. Enjoy your Tuesday visit to Sanity Island

WASHINGTON -- President Bush assumes the role of campaigner in chief in California today as part of a monthlong drive to help Republicans keep control of Congress. He will be in El Dorado Hills to campaign for Rep. John Doolittle, R-Roseville, after appearing in Stockton on behalf of Rep. Richard Pombo, R-Tracy. In the last midterm congressional elections four years ago, the president's efforts paid big dividends for his party, but since then the political ground has shifted. He's still a big draw for Republican fundraisers, but some candidates who proudly campaigned with Bush in the past are keeping their...

Each weekday, tens of thousands of former Bay Area residents drive west from their new homes in San Joaquin County to jobs in the East Bay and Silicon Valley. Less expensive housing has lured them east, but the draw of higher-paying jobs west of the Altamont Pass keeps them tied to the Bay Area. Nowhere has the area's growth been more pronounced than in Tracy -- the hometown of Rep. Richard Pombo, the Republican rancher and powerful House Resources Committee chairman making his bid for an eighth congressional term in a year when a Democratic, anti-incumbent wave seems to be...

President Bush is aggressively taking on his Iraq war critics as he prepares to travel to Northern California next week. On Friday he accused opponents of advancing an argument that "buys into the enemy's propaganda.'' The day before, the president accused Democrats of being the party of "cut and run.'' Earlier in the week, Bush said he considered it "naive'' to believe that going to war was a mistake. Bush arrives in Stockton in advance of a Tuesday morning fundraiser for Rep. Richard Pombo, R-Tracy, the chairman of the House Resources Committee. The president then travels north to El Dorado...

Republican Reps. Richard Pombo of Tracy and John Doolittle of Rocklin are preparing for President Bush's visit to California next week to generate campaign cash for their re-election bids, while Democratic activists are urging the party faithful in the Bay Area to head to San Joaquin County and the Sacramento Valley to help unseat the incumbents. "With the Bay Area's help, we can take back these districts," said Gary Lucks, founder of the group Progressive Action-East Bay, which is helping organize ground troops and raise money for the two Democrats running against Pombo and Doolittle. "Over the next five weeks,...

President Bush will visit California next month to raise money for Republican Reps. Richard Pombo of Tracy and John Doolittle of Rocklin, who are seeking re-election amid ethics questions. Bush will attend a breakfast for Pombo on Oct. 3 and a fundraising lunch at an El Dorado Hills country club for Doolittle the same day, the campaigns said separately on Friday. The Doolittle event, which his campaign hopes will raise as much as $500,000, will be Bush's first appearance on behalf of Doolittle. The congressman's friendships with former Majority Leader Tom DeLay and convicted GOP lobbyist Jack Abramoff have provided...

The Record Published Thursday, Jul 27, 2006 SACRAMENTO - It's official: Every candidate who ran in the spring primary race has now endorsed Democrat Jerry McNerney against seven-term incumbent Rep. Richard Pombo. Right after the June 6 primary, the three Democratic candidates held a "unity breakfast." Then this week, word got out Republican Paul N. "Pete" McCloskey, who took 32 percent of the GOP vote against Pombo, would endorse McNerney. On Wednesday, McNerney announced that Republican Tom Benigno, a perennial candidate from Tracy who took 6 percent of the June vote, will also stand with him. "I have been a...

WASHINGTON -- Rep. Richard Pombo, the Tracy Republican who heads the House Resources Committee, stirs conflict with almost every major initiative he launches, from offshore drilling to Indian gambling. Few members of Congress have as much influence over the nation's environmental laws as Pombo. And no topic has been more contentious than his legislation to overhaul the Endangered Species Act. The House approved Pombo's sweeping rewrite of the 1973 law on a 229-193 vote in September. It was widely denounced by environmentalists as a disturbing retreat from habitat protection and a paperwork nightmare for agencies seeking to revive the country's...

Congressional District 11 Democratic candidate Jerry McNerney has prevailed in an on-line voting contest to determine which candidate would win fundraising support from Democracy for America. Democracy for America is a grassroots liberal organization inspired by the presidential candidacy of Howard Dean and now run by his brother, Jim. According to DFA's web site, "here's what your contributions to McNerney will mean: $25 brings Jerry's message to 50 voters via mail. $50 buys 25 lawn signs for grassroots supporters. $100 gets Jerry valuable time on a local radio station. $250 helps Jerry compete with (incumbent Rep. Richard) Pombo (R-Tracy) on...

SACRAMENTO - Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has dismissed Tracy Rep. Richard Pombo's request for support on his bill that would open the coasts of some states to oil and gas drilling. Although Pombo and Schwarzenegger are both Republicans, Schwarzenegger - who is locked in a re-election campaign against Democratic state Treasurer Phil Angelides - has long opposed lifting the federal moratorium on offshore drilling. "Just last month, the House of Representatives voted once again to extend this moratorium, a process that has worked in the past and is working today to protect our coast. I see no reason to jettison this...

WASHINGTON Rep. Richard Pombo, R-Tracy, wants California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's support for legislation that would allow states to approve oil and gas drilling off their coasts something now blocked by federal bans. Pombo released a letter to Schwarzenegger on Tuesday asking him to back a bill that would replace existing federal moratoria on offshore drilling with a federal ban states could opt out of. The House Resources Committee, which Pombo chairs, is scheduled to vote on the legislation Wednesday. Pombo promotes the idea as a way to let states like California that oppose offshore drilling control their own coasts, while...

Early returns showed Rep. Richard Pombo, R-Tracy, easily outpacing Republican challenger Pete McCloskey Jr. in early vote counts Tuesday night, while on the Democratic ticket, Pleasanton engineer Jerry McNerney was ahead of his chief opponent, Danville airline pilot Steve Filson. With only absentee ballots counted in a handful of Contra Costa county precincts for Congressional District 11, the results could well change. Yet the question is not if Rep. Richard Pombo, R-Tracy, will win the primary but whether his victory will be decisive enough to ward off a more serious attack in November. Ex-congressman McCloskey ran an intense anti-Pombo campaign,...

LOS ANGELES - Republican Rep. Richard Pombo, the cowboy boot-wearing conservative who chairs the House committee that writes environmental laws, was defending his seat Tuesday against a moderate Republican backed by environmental groups, former Rep. Pete McCloskey. Pombo, 45, targeted over ethics questions and his environmental stances, was facing his toughest re-election since coming to Congress in 1992 from his Tracy cattle ranch. The incumbent also faced shifting demographics in his GOP-leaning 11th Congressional District, which was redrawn after the 2000 census to add San Francisco Bay area voters outside his San Joaquin Valley base.GOP maverick McCloskey, 78, who represented...

For political junkies, June 6 has been circled on the political calendar for months. Eight states hold primary elections today. There are important races for gubernatorial nominations in California, Iowa and Alabama, a contested Senate primary in Montana and a number of competitive House primary battles. All in all, it's almost too much of a good thing. There are so many good races out there and not enough time to give each of them their due. In an attempt to bring readers the essential, need-to-know information about today's races, The Fix is providing the primer below. Remember: This is not...