CA 11

McCloskey enters CA-11 race

From the CC Times.

Too early to tell but this has the potential to develop into an interesting situation if McCloskey can bring some legitimacy to the table while at the same time raising difficult questions for Pombo about his ethics and legislative record.

McCloskey is characterized as a potential Wild Card.

[...] McCloskey is often unpredictable and outrageous, an invaluable trait in a cash-strapped race in which press coverage and word-of-mouth cost nothing.

Gotta love his quote from the Sacramento Bee:

Still, McCloskey is sure that he can at least force Pombo to confront some difficult issues."I ain't going to get elected," he said. "But somebody's going to know they were in a hell of a fight."

Pombo begins his smear strategy right out of the gate. I wonder when the "swift boat" ads will begin about McCloskey's service as a Marine in Korea.

"From what I've heard, Mr. McCloskey sounds more like a liberal Democrat candidate than a Republican," said Pombo, who was 11 years old when McCloskey challenged Nixon for president in 1972.

McCloskey wrote the ESA legislation that Pombo has been trying to dismantle. Very interesting.

McCloskey, who served eight terms in Congress from 1967 to 1983, wrote the 1974 Endangered Species Act that Pombo has worked to alter for the past 13 years. Pombo finally passed a bill out of the House last year that would fundamentally change the way the country protects threatened plants and animals, although the bill faces an uncertain fate in the Senate.

posted by brian @ 2:38 PM