Critics attempt to boot Pombo

Contra Costa Times ^ | 4/16/6 | LISA VORDERBRUEGGEN

[SmithL]

My but it's getting crowded in Congressional District 11, what with all the progressive and environmental groups trying to boot incumbent GOP Rep. Richard Pombo out of office.

Anti-Pombo forces are converging from all over the country with ad campaigns, robo-calls, RVs, offers of ground troops and even a Web site where Bay Area liberals can sign up for car pools to the Central Valley.

None of this surprises Pombo. The idea, he says, is to tie him and his money at home rather than allow it to flow into the coffers of vulnerable Republican candidates elsewhere.

Here's a look at what's happening:

• Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund has launched a series of radio ads that attack Pombo's environmental record. The Washington, D.C.-based environmental group is also opening an office, in either Stockton or Pleasanton, where it will coordinate its campaign work. And Monday, it will roll out an RV festooned with anti-Pombo signs and take it on a road trip through the district.

• American Family Voices, a nonprofit group run out of Washington, D.C., by a former Clinton staffer, is running what it calls its Campaign for Cleaner Congress. Among other GOP targets, they've been feeding automated robo-calls into Pombo's district.

• The California League of Conservation Voters, a state environmental group, has endorsed Pombo's Republican opponent, ex-Peninsula congressman Pete McCloskey. And its staff has been calling league members, telling them that Pombo is "the most dangerous and hostile legislator in the country when it comes to the environment."

• The Sierra Club is running what the nonprofit world calls a "public accountability campaign" about Pombo's record. They recently hosted an appearance by Coalition of National Park Service Retirees Chairman Bill Wade in Pleasanton and Stockton, who lambasted Pombo on national park policies.

• Communities United to Strengthen America, a Washington, D.C., nonprofit group formed in January, is opening an office in Stockton -- its only California site -- to educate the public on issues important to the middle class. Its literature doesn't mention Pombo, but its site choice speaks for itself.

• Environmental Action, a Boston-based organization affiliated with the Massachusetts Public Interest Research Group is asking folks to vote online for their favorite anti-Pombo print advertisement. The ads attempt to link Pombo to a Bush administration proposal to sell surplus federal forest land to back-fill a rural school funding shortfall.

• Project BlueBridge, the successor group to East Bay For Kerry, is providing volunteers to work with the campaigns. They recently helped register new Democratic voters at the Manteca street fair.

• The Action Caucus, an arm of the California Young Democrats, is launching an anti-Pombo campaign called "Left On 580," pun intended.

"There's a growing ethos among Democrats that it is no longer acceptable to operate only in areas which are progressive and Democratic," said caucus co-founder Leighton Woodhouse. The caucus will soon offer online car-pool sign-ups for prospective Democratic campaign workers.

This list is sweet music to the near evangelical anti-Pombo congregation. But will it play in conservative District 11, where Republicans have a 7 percentage point registration advantage?

Conventional wisdom suggests otherwise.

At no time since 1966, when California established the existing congressional district system, has a seat switched parties when one party held a 7 point advantage, says UC San Diego professor and author Gary Jacobson. Only a handful of Democrats have won in Republican-controlled districts, and the margins were much closer.

"The prediction of the outcome," Jacobson says, "using the two-party registration advantage is nearly perfect."

Issues matter, Jacobson says, but the issues are closely tied to party registration.

Yeah, we know the odds against an Election Day victory, says Sierra Club spokesman Eric Antebi.

But the unprecedented national focus on Pombo offers the environmental movement an opportunity to flex its political muscle and perhaps influence policy decisions that will endure long past the next election.

"Regardless of what happens on Election Day," Antebi says, "we want Pombo to look over his shoulder and see us standing there."

IT WASN'T PINK. Leighton Woodhouse, the Action Caucus co-founder, was driving in downtown Los Angeles on Spring Street while he talked on the phone for this interview.

But he broke mid-sentence, saying, "You're not going to believe this, but there's an elephant in the street!"

Whoa, a pachyderm blocking the road is a bad omen for a progressive Democratic activist who wants to topple the GOP.

"Oh, wait, there's a donkey, too!" he added. "They must be shooting a political commercial or something."

Efforts to track down the reason for the elephant-donkey duo proved fruitless. "What block on Spring Street?" asked a woman at the Los Angeles office that issues filming permits.

Geez, how many donkey-elephant permits does Los Angeles hand out on a given Tuesday?

[SmithL]

They cannot stand having a Republican in Congress from the Bay Area.

[John Geyer]

They are just going to alienate the voters in the district.

[george76]

Sorry that I missed this earlier.

He is making our forests healthy.