Greenwire
11/21/2005
By Dan Berman and Allison A. Freeman
After years of fighting him on Capitol Hill, Democrats and environmentalists are taking the battle against House Resources Committee Chairman Richard Pombo to his home district in hopes of unseating the central California Republican next fall.
Pombo's 11th District is the only place in California where outside groups are currently spending any campaign money, and it is seen as a race to watch, said Amy Walter, the House editor of the Cook Political Report. "He has definitely become target number one for the environmental community," Walter said.
His opponents want Pombo to pay a political price for his aggressive legislative agenda as Resources Committee chairman. Pombo has pushed legislation through committee to rewrite the Endangered Species Act, allow oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, permit new offshore oil exploration and revise the 1872 Mining Law.
"He's not able to fly under the radar like he used to do," said Tony Massaro, senior vice president for political affairs for the League of Conservation Voters. "He's the chairman of the Resources Committee, a very powerful person in Washington, who's proposing and spearheading very destructive environmental legislation, and we want to hold him accountable for that."
Yet political analysts, Republicans and even some of the opponents themselves acknowledge there is little chance of unseating Pombo. And Pombo himself is not worried, said Resources Committee spokesman Brian Kennedy.
"He fully expects that the [Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee] and its cohorts in the environmental community will spend quite a bit of money and energy trying to defeat him, and it may be a tough fight, but he is looking forward to it and not losing any sleep over it," Kennedy said.
Critics try to 'educate' voters
Pombo handily won his last three general elections, and even with increasing suburban development in changing his district's demographics, the California 11th remains primarily Republican. Nevertheless, opponents seem intent on ensuring Pombo faces a significant challenge for the first time since his election to Congress in 1992.
Former Rep. Pete McCloskey (R-Calif.), who is considering a primary challenge against Pombo, said voters in the 11th do not know Pombo or how he votes. "There's an apathy here in California towards all politicians," McCloskey said.
While Pombo has long sought to revise ESA and open ANWR to oil drilling, his recent proposal to sell 16 national parks for commercial or energy development took everyone by surprise and gave fuel to environmentalists who consider the chairman an extremist. First reported by Greenwire in September, Pombo's draft legislative document proposed selling 16 parks -- including one in the 11th District, the Eugene O'Neill National Historic Site -- as well as selling advertising and naming rights to park buildings in order to raise revenue for the government.
Pombo's office has repeatedly said the proposal was not meant to be taken seriously, but that has not stopped environmental advocacy groups such as the National Parks Conservation Association and Wild PAC from making it the focus of ads and fundraising pitches.
The Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund earlier this month started airing television ads highlighting the ESA and national park issues in the San Francisco and Sacramento markets, which overlap the 11th District. The ads also attempt to tie Pombo with former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas). DeLay and two associates are charged with criminal conspiracy and money laundering in a case that stems from fundraising and spending in the 2002 Texas legislative election.
"We're targeting [Pombo's] district to educate his constituents," said Kim Delfino, California program director of the Defenders Action Fund.
"I don't think he's used to having conservation groups going in the district and informing them what he's doing," Delfino said. "His constituents are largely in the dark."
Democrats last summer ran newspaper ads highlighting recent ethics charges against Pombo. Critics say Pombo violated House ethics rules when his staff lobbied the Interior Department last year on wind power guidelines without disclosing the Pombo family's financial interests in wind energy. Pombo's parents own a 300-acre ranch in California's Altamont Pass and have received hundreds of thousands of dollars in royalties from turbines on their land over the past 17 years (E&E Daily, April 20).
Criticism 'a badge of honor,' Pombo spokesman says
Kennedy said voters in California's 11th District are familiar with Pombo's record because he has run on the same issues, such as ESA reform, time and time again.
"It's ironic, to say the least, that D.C.-based environmental lobbying firms would go to the Central Valley of California to tell voters that their congressman is out of touch," Kennedy said. "We really can't help but laugh at this, and I think that would be the reaction of most voters in the 11th District."
Pombo's actions have also attracted attention nationwide. Several newspapers have written editorials criticizing his committee's agenda. The New York Times, for one, wrote in its lead editorial on Oct. 30: "Mr. Pombo's only idea, and it is a terrible one, is to treat this nation the way he treats his congressional district, as if it were ripe for exploitation."
Kennedy's response: "For the chairman, it is a badge of honor. If The New York Times wrote a Sunday lead editorial praising Chairman Pombo's efforts to increase energy supplies in the United States, he would call an emergency meeting of his staff to figure out what he was doing wrong."
A changing district?
The 11th District may not be what it once was, however, and Democrats and environmentalists hope changing demographics will lead to an upset.
Pombo is the only Republican in the greater San Francisco Bay Area. His seahorse-shaped district stretches from Morgan Hill in the south to Lodi and includes parts of Santa Clara, Alameda and Contra Costa counties, as well as much of San Joaquin County.
The California 11th Congressional District of Rep. Richard Pombo (R). Image courtesy of the state of California. Click on the image to view a larger version of the map.
"It is the classic gerrymander," McCloskey said. "There are 11 different population centers, but no more than two are alike."
The area has traditionally been agricultural, but now includes fast-growing Bay Area suburbs such as Brentwood. And even the former farm town of Tracy has seen a population boom. Census information shows Tracy's population has increased by just over 35 percent in four years. The 2000 census put the town at 56,900 people and the estimate for 2004 was 76,900.
Opponents look to that suburban growth and see potential for a growing number of voters who would find Pombo out-of-step with their views on how the federal government should be involved with energy development, species protection or public lands.
"His district is changing demographically and is becoming more moderate as new voters come in from the valley," said Sarah Feinberg of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.
But the Cook Report's Walter said the district is not yet crossing the line to a new party. She said it has not changed as much as its neighboring 10th District, where Rep. Ellen Tauscher (D-Calif.) was able to defeat a Republican incumbent in 1996.
"This is not an Ellen Tauscher district, it still has a pretty good Republican rural base," Walter said. "The reality is the district is changing but fundamentally at its core remains Republican.
"They would need a very good, very well-funded Democratic nominee," Walter added. "They are left with a first-time candidate that we don't really know much about in terms of campaign skills."
At least four Democrats have declared or expressed interest in running, according to local press reports: Steve Filson, a United Airlines pilot and former Navy fighter pilot supported by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC); Jerry McNerney, who garnered 39 percent of the vote as a write-in candidate against Pombo last year; Scott Chacon, a software engineer in his first campaign; and Margee Ensign, dean of the School of International Studies at the University of the Pacific.
The DCCC has targeted the race for the first time, backing Filson. DCCC's Sarah Feinberg said a poll the group conducted found that the support for Pombo's re-election was at only 32 percent.
"We have always believed that he is vulnerable, that bears out in votes and the waning support in the district," Feinberg said. "His re-elect is at 32, that's pretty abysmal and pitiful for a seventh-term incumbent."
But a challenger would nonetheless have to confront Pombo's stature as an incumbent and committee chairman as well as his campaign coffers. The 11th District is in the San Francisco media market, a very expensive place to buy advertising. As of last month, Pombo had more than $555,000 on hand -- five times as much cash as Filson, the best-funded challenger, Federal Election Commission reports show.
GOP may have best shot
Despite the push by Democrats, the greatest threat to Pombo may come in the Republican primary, where McCloskey has pledged he would find a suitable GOP challenger or would run for the seat himself. McCloskey served from 1967 until 1983 and was a co-author of the 1973 endangered species law that Pombo is seeking to change.
President Bush won 54 percent of the vote here in the last presidential election, and about 56 percent of its votes still come from San Joaquin County, which is Pombo's rural base and the more conservative part of the district.
"I think he can be beaten, but he is best beaten by a Republican because of the heavy [GOP] registration edge in the district," McCloskey said. McCloskey and others have been pushing attorney Mark Connolly to challenge Pombo, but Connolly has not made a decision. McCloskey said he would consider running, but at age 78, would prefer not to.
McCloskey is a co-founder of Revolt of the Elders, which describes itself as "a group of representatives from the vintage years of Gerry Ford." The group has been outspoken this year on the controversial changes to the House ethics rules designed at the time to protect DeLay.
McCloskey said the ethics rule problems, along with recent energy and transportation spending bills and votes against veterans health care, show the Republican Party has strayed from its conservative roots.
"We were the party of fiscal responsibility, environment and balanced budgets," McCloskey said. "These Republicans have no values that I recognize."