{"id":143172,"date":"2010-01-05T22:08:44","date_gmt":"2010-01-06T03:08:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.grist.org\/article\/2010-01-05-richard-dick-pombo-running-for-congress-again-in-california\/"},"modified":"2010-01-05T22:08:44","modified_gmt":"2010-01-06T03:08:44","slug":"richard-dick-pombo-running-for-congress-again-in-california","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/143172","title":{"rendered":"Richard &#8220;Dick&#8221; Pombo running for Congress again in California"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t\t\tby Lisa Hymas <\/p>\n<p>Pombo and an old pal.Enviros were thrilled when Richard Pombo,<br \/>a Republican who represented California&#8217;s 11th congressional district for seven<br \/>terms, was ousted from his seat by <a href=\"http:\/\/feeds.grist.org\/article\/pombo_race\">a renewable-energy geek<\/a> in<br \/>2006.&nbsp; Pombo had been deemed Public Enemy<br \/>No. 1 by the environmental community, which invested big bucks in the effort to<br \/>beat him.<\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/feeds.grist.org\/article\/pombo_race\">Amanda Little reported at the time<\/a>:<\/p>\n<p>As chair of the House Resources Committee, Pombo has enjoyed<br \/>tremendous influence over environmental policy making in recent years. He<br \/>spearheaded an effort to weaken the Endangered Species Act (which passed the<br \/>House last year but got nowhere in the Senate), and pushed a bill that would<br \/>lift a moratorium on offshore drilling (which also passed the House and also<br \/>didn&#8217;t clear the Senate). Less successful have been Pombo&#8217;s attempts to<br \/>green-light drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge; sell off more than<br \/>a dozen national monuments, preserves, and historic sites; allow advertising in<br \/>national parks; and open vast swaths of public land to development under the<br \/>guise of mining-law reform.<\/p>\n<p>Pombo was also tainted by dealings with disgraced lobbyist<br \/>Jack Abramoff and other unsavory characters.&nbsp;<br \/>As David Roberts wrote in <a href=\"http:\/\/feeds.grist.org\/article\/rep-richard-dick-pombo\">a heartfelt tribute<\/a> upon his defeat, Pombo &#8220;embodied the cozy corruption, utter fealty to big<br \/>industry, and mendacious faux conservatism of the 109th Congress.&#8221;&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<p>Pombo and another old pal.<a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/gwire\/2010\/01\/05\/05greenwire-former-house-resources-chairman-pombo-to-attem-86463.html\">Reports<br \/>Greenwire<\/a>, &#8220;Since leaving Congress, Pombo has worked for the Oregon-based<br \/>public relations firm Pac\/West Communications, which has worked to ease logging<br \/>restrictions and at one time backed Pombo&#8217;s efforts to overhaul the Endangered<br \/>Species Act.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<p>But now Pombo is back, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/gwire\/2010\/01\/05\/05greenwire-former-house-resources-chairman-pombo-to-attem-86463.html\">running to<br \/>represent the 19th congressional district<\/a>, right next door to his old<br \/>district.&nbsp; He seeks to replace Rep. George<br \/>Radanovich (R), who&#8217;s retiring.<\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<p>Here&#8217;s <a href=\"http:\/\/action.sierraclub.org\/site\/MessageViewer?em_id=151361.0&amp;dlv_id=130981\">reaction<br \/>from<strong> <\/strong>Bruce Hamilton of the Sierra<br \/>Club<\/a><strong>:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>When Pombo represented Dublin and Pleasanton he wanted to<br \/>sell off the only national park that was in his district (Eugene O&#8217;Neill<br \/>National Historic Site).&nbsp; Now he wants to represent Yosemite.&nbsp;<br \/>National Parks were America&#8217;s best idea, film director&nbsp;Ken Burns reminds<br \/>us.&nbsp; Having Richard Pombo represent Yosemite may be America&#8217;s worst<br \/>idea.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<p>Pombo&#8217;s aim for a comeback is nothing but a shameless<br \/>attempt to exploit the&nbsp;revolving door that remains all too common in<br \/>Washington.&nbsp; After doing the bidding of Big Oil and other special interests<br \/>during his years in Congress, he literally went to work for the same lobbying<br \/>firm that backed some his most egregious activities, and now he wants to be<br \/>sent back to Congress to represent a district where he doesn&#8217;t even live.&nbsp;<br \/>Who does Pombo really want to represent in Congress&#8212;the voters of California&#8217;s<br \/>19th district or his special interest supporters?<\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<p>After being dumped by voters in one district, it now appears<br \/>that both Richard Pombo and his Big Oil backers are looking for a taxpayer-funded<br \/>bail-out from another.<\/p>\n<p>And here&#8217;s the Sierra Club&#8217;s list of &#8220;Pombo&#8217;s Greatest Misses&#8221;:<\/p>\n<p> Proposed selling off our national parks,<br \/>including the only national park in his former district<br \/> Took more than $337,000 in campaign cash from<br \/>Big Oil<br \/> Tried to gut the Endangered Species Act<br \/> Went on a taxpayer-funded cross-country family<br \/>vacation<br \/> Backed the George W. Bush administration&#8217;s<br \/>misguided and disastrous effort to decimate our national forests, the so-called<br \/>Healthy Forest Initiative<br \/> Backed the George W. Bush administration&#8217;s<br \/>efforts to gut the Clean Air Act<br \/> Tried, repeatedly, to open the Arctic National<br \/>Wildlife Refuge to drilling<br \/> One of the most vocal proponents of disastrous<br \/>Bush-Cheney energy policy, written by, and for, Big Oil, Dirty Coal, and the<br \/>nuclear industry<br \/> Named one of the &#8220;most corrupt members of<br \/>Congress&#8221; by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, based<br \/>on his ties to disgraced and convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff and numerous<br \/>other alleged violations of Congressional ethics rules and federal laws.<\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/hotlineoncall.nationaljournal.com\/archives\/2010\/01\/enviro_groups_r.php\">Other<br \/>enviro groups are also getting riled up<\/a> and ready to battle Pombo<br \/>again.<\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We&#8217;re not about to stand by and watch Pombo grab his<br \/>carpetbag and return to Congress a mere four years after we worked so hard to<br \/>oust him,&#8221; Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund President Rodger Schlickeisen<br \/>said in a statement. &#8220;If he runs, we&#8217;ll be there to remind voters about<br \/>his corrupt record and why he was booted out of Congress in the first<br \/>place.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Related Links:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.grist.org\/article\/2010-01-08-policy-politics-of-obamas-clean-energy-tax-credits\/\">The policy and politics of Obama&#8217;s $2.3 billion in clean energy tax credits<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.grist.org\/article\/2010-01-07-epa-gets-tough-on-smog\/\">EPA gets tough on smog<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.grist.org\/article\/coal-looking-back-at-2009-ahead-at-2010\/\">Coal: Looking Back at 2009 &amp; Ahead at 2010<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t<br clear=\"both\" style=\"clear: both;\"\/><br \/>\n<br clear=\"both\" style=\"clear: both;\"\/><br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/ads.pheedo.com\/click.phdo?s=f4ff57f14a55d48ced8bf576b45cf0be&#038;p=1\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" style=\"border: 0;\" border=\"0\" src=\"http:\/\/ads.pheedo.com\/img.phdo?s=f4ff57f14a55d48ced8bf576b45cf0be&#038;p=1\"\/><\/a><br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" height=\"0\" width=\"0\" border=\"0\" style=\"display:none\" src=\"http:\/\/a.rfihub.com\/eus.gif?eui=2223\"\/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>by Lisa Hymas Pombo and an old pal.Enviros were thrilled when Richard Pombo,a Republican who represented California&#8217;s 11th congressional district for seventerms, was ousted from his seat by a renewable-energy geek in2006.&nbsp; Pombo had been deemed Public EnemyNo. 1 by the environmental community, which invested big bucks in the effort tobeat him. Amanda Little reported [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":765,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-143172","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143172","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/765"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=143172"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143172\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=143172"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=143172"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=143172"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}