It’s enough to give environmentalists fits.
Richard Pombo is back.
For 14 years, Pombo held a special place in the hearts of America’s environmental movement somewhere next to Capt. Joseph Hazelwood of the Exxon Valdez and the hunter who shot Bambi’s mother.
A Tracy cattle rancher whom President George W. Bush nicknamed “The Marlboro Man,” from 1993 to 2007 Pombo represented the 11th Congressional District, which runs from Morgan Hill to Danville along the east side of I-680 and includes farm towns like Manteca and Lodi.
He introduced bills to expand offshore oil drilling, rewrite the Endangered Species Act, increase logging on public lands and limit federal agencies from restricting pesticides. He advocated more commercial whale hunting, and famously wrote in a 1996 book that environmental regulation “owes more to communism than to any other philosophy.”
After environmentalists spent more than $1 million to help Democrat Jerry McNerney, a former wind energy executive, upset Pombo in 2006, green groups thought he was done.
But this week Pombo, 49, is sprinting to the finish line in a race to resurrect his political career. He’s running in the Republican primary in what may be California’s hottest congressional race of the June 8 election — a four-man contest to succeed retiring Rep. George Radanovich, R-Mariposa, in the 19th district.
The district includes Yosemite National Park and the fields of the San Joaquin Valley, along with the Sierra Foothills, the north side of Fresno, parts of Modesto and Gold Rush towns like Jamestown and Sonora. It’s a solidly Republican area, and the winner of the primary is expected to cruise to Washington, D.C., in November.
Pombo and the other three candidates, state Sen. Jeff Denham, R-Merced; former Fresno Mayor Jim Patterson; and Fresno City Councilman Larry Westerlund, have similar positions on the issues. They all want lower taxes, an overturn of President Barack Obama’s health care law, and new rules to waive the Endangered Species Act to allow more water to be pumped to farmers from the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta.
But Pombo, in his familiar cowboy hat, argues that if elected, he’d not only start with 14 years’ seniority, but with insight into how Congress works, particularly when it comes to water and wildlife laws. If the GOP wins back the House in November, he notes that by January he could be chairman again of the powerful House Natural Resources Committee, pushing for the interests of farmers and other rural Americans.
“This is a tight race,” he said. “The state, the Central Valley, doesn’t have a lot of time. We’re in trouble. We need somebody who is going to be effective immediately. That’s what I bring to the table.”
Environmentalists have energetically responded. The Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund has spent at least $65,000 on radio ads calling Pombo “another corrupt politician.” The Humane Society Legislative Fund has distributed thousands of mailers. And the League of Conservation Voters put Pombo on its “Dirty Dozen List,” normally reserved for sitting members of Congress.
“Having Pombo represent a district that includes Yosemite National Park is like electing Godzilla as mayor of Tokyo,” said Warner Chabot, CEO of the California League of Conservation Voters.
Pombo, who was named an “eco-thug” by the Sierra Club in 1996, shrugs off the opposition.
“It just shows I was the most effective fighting against them,” he said.
The race has split the state’s GOP establishment. Denham has the endorsement of Radanovich. Patterson has the backing of the Central Valley Tea Party. Pombo is supported by Rep. Tom McClintock, R-Granite Bay, and Rep. Devin Nunes, of neighboring Visalia.
Denham, 42, is an almond grower from Atwater who served 16 years in the Air Force and whose state Senate district runs from Salinas to Hollister to Modesto. He said he’ll represent voters without the drama that Pombo brings. During the campaign, Pombo has caught controversy for once taking money from disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff and also for billing taxpayers $5,000 after taking his family in 2003 on an RV trip of national parks.
“Democrats have not had the baggage or the ammunition to run against me,” Denham said. “Richard Pombo has certainly given them a lot of material over the years.”
Neither Denham nor Pombo lives in the district. The Constitution only requires House members live in the state they represent. Both have raised about $600,000. Pombo’s major donors include Exxon-Mobil, BP, Arch Coal, the Safari Club and the head of Westlands Water District. Denham’s include various Indian tribes, and prominent farm leaders like George Tanimura and Rick Antle of Salinas, and John Harris of Harris Ranch in Coalinga.
A SurveyUSA poll May 18 had Patterson at 29 percent, Denham at 28, Pombo at 18 and Westerlund at 6. Pombo said his polls show it closer.
“I would not dismiss Pombo,” said Tom Holyoke, an associate professor of political science at California State University-Fresno. “He may have a chance. It would be wrong to count him out.”
Contact Paul Rogers at 408-920-5045.
