Former congressman to take on Richard Pombo in Republican
Primary
Morgan Hill – The Republican candidate’s eyes showed a gleam for political battle. Trailed by reporters and photojournalists through downtown Morgan Hill, the silver-haired gentleman spied the door for lawyer Kevin Courtney’s office. He passed through the entry and charged at full gallop up a flight of steep stairs to the law firm’s second floor foyer.
“I’m Pete McCloskey,” he told the receptionist with a confident grin. “I’m running for Congress.”
The 78-year-old McCloskey knows the halls of Washington well. He served as a congressman for seven years starting in 1967 when he represented the San Francisco Peninsula area. After years of public service, he retired to his ranch in Yolo County.
In mid-January, however, McCloskey announced he would enter the campaign for California’s 11th congressional district on a platform of ethics and honesty in government. He faces in the June 6 primary race incumbent Congressman Richard Pombo (R-Tracy), who gained his House seat in 1992. The district they both seek to represent stretches like a zig-zag from Lodi to Pacheco Pass, including Morgan Hill and the eastern areas of Gilroy.
The chairman of the powerful House Resources Committee, Pombo holds considerable influence on Capitol Hill.
But he is now under federal scrutiny for allegedly receiving $40,500 in contributions from former Indian gaming lobbyist Jack Abramoff, according to a political watchdog group. Last month, Abramoff pleaded guilty to conning his clients out of millions of dollars in an effort buy favors from Democrat and Republican lawmakers and Washington power brokers.
The San Joaquin Valley congressman has never been charged with breaking the law or found guilty of violating any House ethics rules. Pombo’s representatives said he contributed some of Abramoff’s tainted money to charity organizations.
Now, for the next four months of campaigning, McCloskey will fight Pombo with everything he has. But it’s more than a schoolyard brawl for McCloskey, it’s a crusade for the future of Republican integrity. In his statement of candidacy, he characterized his bid “as a battle for the soul of the Republican Party.” His fight is to return the party back to the “historical values” of truth and honesty, he said.
And it won’t be easy for the underdog in a race that could gain national attention – Pombo is expected to raise at least four times as many dollars for his campaign war chest as McCloskey.
But Rob Caughlan, McCloskey’s campaign consultant, believes the race won’t necessarily go to the candidate who raises the most coin.
He suggested Pombo’s connections and his position on the House Resource Committee could become a liability considering the negative press key Republican players have found recently. Pombo received his chairman position from former House majority leader Tom DeLay of Texas, who in December was ousted by the Abramoff scandal. DeLay now faces federal and state charges of allegedly accepting illegal campaign donations.
Changing demographics in Pombo’s San Joaquin Valley homeland might also significantly help McCloskey, Caughlan added.
Forty-five percent of the congressional district lives in that region, and Pombo’s core support of die-hard Republican ranchers may have been diluted in recent years as thousands of Bay Area workers make their home in more affordable developments built on farm land during the past decade.
“The old farmers and the people who use to be Pombo’s constituency, there’s a lot of people who are not Pombo types anymore,” Caughlan said. “They’re Silicon Valley people who are buying into the housing there and commuting.”
Wayne Johnson, Pombo’s campaign consultant, said the congressman doesn’t consider McCloskey a significant threat to his campaign because McCloskey is not “a real Republican.”
Johnson contends McCloskey is out of step with the times and compared him to the fictional Hollywood character Austin Powers, implying that both were “still in the 1970s.” In 1972, McCloskey ran a similar ethics-based campaign against President Richard Nixon.
“He’s not just outside the mainstream of the Republican party, he’s outside the mainstream of American opinion on a number of issues,” Johnson said. “He’s operating in a paradigm from a previous generation.”
Johnson questioned McCloskey’s credibility as a candidate for the district, saying Pombo’s contender “doesn’t really live in the district” and is a carpetbagger.
McCloskey readily admits he and his wife changed addresses from his ranch in Yolo County to a Lodi apartment in order to be eligible for the district election. “I’ll accept the ‘carpetbagger’ term as being accurate,” he said. “But that does not mean I wouldn’t be a better representative for the district than a man who has been voted one of the thirteen most corrupt members of Congress by a pretty reliable agency (Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington).”
Johnson said Pombo will not debate McCloskey publicly.
“We frankly don’t think he should be running in a Republican primary,” Johnson said. “This whole thing was hatched by the Democratic campaign in California. He’s a guy who gave money and endorsed John Kerry for president and has endorsed Democrats over the years.”
McCloskey asserts he upholds the traditional values of the party, including “fiscal responsibility, limited government and environmental balance,” and is therefore more of a Republican than Pombo. As for public debates, he said he hopes Pombo will reconsider his initial decision.
“We’ll have 12 debates, and if he doesn’t come to the debates, we’ll have somebody speak his views on his behalf,” McCloskey said. “If he wants to avoid the debates, it’ll be seen as that he is avoiding the debates. Why is he afraid of debating an old man of 78 who is a carpetbagger coming into his county?”
McCloskey said he plans to schedule a debate in Morgan Hill for possibly late March.
Besides ethics, environmental protection issues are another major reason McCloskey decided to run against Pombo. The incumbent, a fourth-generation rancher, has crusaded to free farmers, ranchers and landowners from restrictions of environmental impact laws.
He is a strong advocate of private property rights and has sought to privatize public lands. Last year, Pombo proposed the government sell off 15 national parks and also advocated drilling for oil and natural gas along the California coast and the Arctic National Wildlife Reserve.
As a congressional representative, McCloskey helped write the Endangered Species Act in 1973 to protects wildlife from encroaching development. Last year, as chairman of the Resources Committee, Pombo attempted to rewrite the historic law to benefit private landowners and corporations.
While touring the South Valley this week, McCloskey met with Morgan Hill city representatives including Mayor Dennis Kennedy and councilmen Steve Tate and Greg Sellers. Kennedy said the council members discussed with McCloskey various South Valley issues including the Llagas Creek Flood Control project, traffic safety on Highway 152 along the Pacheco Pass, and the impact San Jose’s proposed Coyote Valley development might have on the region.
“He has lots of contacts and a lot of knowledge,” said Kennedy, a registered Democrat, describing his impression of McCloskey from the one-hour meeting. “I was impressed with his knowledge of the issues and also the fact that he’s willing to come out here and meet with us and find out what our issues are.”
Although South Valley is important in his campaign, McCloskey said he will focus his efforts in the San Joaquin Valley where Pombo’s political support is strongest. He plans to campaign in South Valley only four or five times during the next four months, he said.
McCloskey’s Thursday stroll in downtown Morgan Hill to get acquainted with South Valley locals demonstrated his campaign style.
Around noon, Bruce and Sheila Walton and their friend Jerry Machado sat inside the Just Breakfast cafe eating their meals when the Republican candidate, trailed by news reporters and photojournalists, marched over to their table.
“I’m Pete McCloskey. I’m running for Congress,” the man announced with a confident grin and extended hand.
At first, the Waltons and Machado seemed caught off guard, but then McCloskey told them he was “an old Marine.” Bruce, a former U.S. Air Force man wearing a jacket displaying National Rifle Association decals, proudly shook his hand. Quickly the three Morgan Hill residents began to discuss with McCloskey their concerns about the current state of political ethics in American government.
“My question to you is, what the hell is the Republican Party doing?” demanded Bruce, a registered Republican. “When are they going to pull their fingers out of their you-know-what and do something?”
“That’s why I’m running,” McCloskey told him.
