Pete McCloskey to run against Richard Pombo

[demosincebirth]

McCloskey Says He's Running for House By JULIET WILLIAMS, Associated Press Writer
1 hour, 59 minutes ago

SACRAMENTO, Calif. - Former seven-term Congressman Paul "Pete" McCloskey said Saturday that he will challenge U.S. Rep. Richard Pombo (news, bio, voting record) for the Republican nomination in his northern California district.
The 78-year-old McCloskey, a maverick known for environmental causes, told The Associated Press he felt compelled to get back into politics because of his concern for the environment and what he sees as a shift in Washington away from traditional Republican values.

He also was prompted by what he described as Pombo's close ties to Washington lobbyist Jack Abramoff, who has pleaded guilty to conspiracy in a growing corruption scandal.

"Winning isn't the issue. The issue is forcing a debate on which way the Republican Party goes," McCloskey said. "This guy Pombo, he wants to privatize the remaining public lands in California and he has the power to do it. He's the chairman of the House Resources Committee. He's up to his neck with Abramoff."

A spokeswoman for Pombo did not immediately return messages seeking comment Saturday.

McCloskey, a lawyer in Redwood City, helped write the Endangered Species Act while he was in congress, and he ran for the Republican presidential nomination against Richard Nixon in 1972 on an anti-Vietnam War platform.

He said Saturday that he spent months trying to find a candidate to run against Pombo, also a Republican.

"I'm going to run against him because nobody else will," McCloskey said. He said he planned to formally announce his candidacy Monday.



I guess he moved into the Central Valley (Ca).

[baby_bear]

1. What great news! McCloskey is back!

Thanks for the post, augie38 -- do you have a link?

I want to send it to my sister in northern CA.

b_b

[demosincebirth]

3. No, I don't.

I got the aticle in Yahoo news.

[Crazy Guggenheim]

2. Uh OH! He's a tough competitor!

[msongs]

4. in case u didnt notice he is a REPUBLICAN. who is the democrat

in this race? so we can get RID of republicans, eh?

Msongs
www.msongs.com/dean2008.htm

[Tom Rinaldo]

5. We will cross that bridge if we come to it but

McCloskey is running in the Republican primary first.

I'm sorry, shoot me, but I honor that man. McCloskey took on Nixon in the New Hampshire Primary over the war in Viet Nam. He has always been honorable and he has often been surprisingly progressive. That doesn't make it a cinch that I would vote for him against a good Democrat for Congress by any means, if I lived in that District. I doubt I would, but I might support McCloskey against a centrist Corporate Dem for example.

The point is this is a man with real integrity and courage. McCloskey ran against a sitting War Time President from his own party on an anti war platform in 1972. He should not simply be dismissed as just another Republican.

This from Wilpedia:

"Despite polls showing that he had a strong lead over any potential Democratic nominee, President Nixon was challenged in the GOP primaries by two congressmen from both sides of the political spectrum, the liberal Pete McCloskey of California and the conservative John Ashbrook of Ohio. McCloskey ran as an anti-war and anti-Nixon candidate, while Ashbrook opposed Nixon's détente policies towards China and the USSR. In the New Hampshire primary McCloskey's platform of peace garnered a surprising 20% of the vote to Nixon's 68%, with Ashbrook receiving 10%. The outspoken McCloskey, one of a handful of antiwar Republicans in Congress, eventually snubbed the president by denying Nixon his coveted "nomination by acclamation" when the California congressman won the vote of exactly one delegate at the Republican National Convention, to Nixon's 1,347 delegates."

[DinahMoeHum]

6. There IS a Democrat running against Pombo. . .Steve Filson

www.filsonforcongress.com


also:
www.bandofbrothers2006.org

:kick:

[Crazy Guggenheim]

7. He's DLCish too. Ellen Tauscher of The DLC gave him a ton of $

to run. I am concerned about the Demos getting elected in that race.

[DinahMoeHum]

8. Found another hat in this Democratic ring. . .Jerry McNerney

www.jerrymcnerney.org

He may be a better alternative.

:kick::kick:

[Crazy Guggenheim]

9. I saw him speak once at a DFA meetup. He said the DLC was dead. WTF??

:popcorn:

[DinahMoeHum]

10. How would I know, CG?? I don't live in California. . .

if you do, then kindly enlighten us about who would be a viable candidate in the area to replace RePukeface Richard Pombo.

I've listed 2 names just by researching various websites. Let's see you come up with one.

If all you want to do is shoot down every name we or the Dems offer up, that's your business. But if all you are going to do is pout because the candidate doesn't match up to every one of your oh-so-precious standards and litmus tests, you're of little use to that candidate's camp, or, to the DFA or PDA or whatever.

Sorry to unload like this, but you know how it is.

:evilfrown:

[Crazy Guggenheim]

11. It was not meant as a shootdown or criticism.