This must be the winter of
Richard Pombo’s discontent, or it would be if they had winter
in California.
It isn’t just that his plan to
privatize 15 national parks and other public lands went kerblooey,
or that he found it prudent to give away embarrassing campaign
contributions. It isn’t just that three Democrats are seeking
to run against him in November, or even that two Republicans plan
to challenge him in the primary as he seeks his eighth term in the
U.S. House of Representatives.
There are other troubles.
First, Pombo, the powerful chairman of the House Resources
Committee, got “Abramoffed.” He also got Hurwitzed. And perhaps
most humiliating of all, the press discovered that a supporter had
attempted a reverse Siegenthaler.
Some definitions are
required here. Charles Hurwitz is known largely for owning the
company that clear-cut several thousand acres of old-growth
California redwoods. He is also a Houston millionaire from whom the
Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) was seeking $300
million as partial compensation for the $1.6 billion taxpayers
spent to bail out a Texas savings and loan he helped run.
Last month, the Los Angeles Times revealed that
Pombo and fellow California Republican Rep. John T. Doolittle
subpoenaed the FDIC’s confidential records on the Hurwitz
case. To call such interference with a federal investigation
unprecedented would be an exaggeration. But it worked: The FDIC
dropped the investigation.
John Siegenthaler is a retired
newspaper editor, known for his work at the Nashville
Tennessean and USA Today. He was in
the news recently because some fool inserted false and defamatory
“information” into the article about him in
Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia “that anyone
can edit,” as it proclaims.
How embarrassing for Pombo,
then, that on Super Bowl Sunday, the Argus in California’s
East Bay ran a story detailing how someone had altered
Pombo’s Wikipedia entry, conveniently deleting material that
might not look good to the average voter.
There is no
evidence that Pombo was behind the changes. But some of the deleted
material was about Pombo’s relationship with Jack Abramoff.
Everyone not actually residing under a rock knows
Abramoff as the Washington character with whom no other Washington
character wishes to be associated. Especially to be avoided is any
indication of having taken his money, eaten at his restaurant, or
had staff members go to work for his lobbying firm. All three apply
to Pombo.
Not that Pombo was among the GOP congressmen
closest to Abramoff. He received only $7,000 in campaign
contributions from Abramoff and that’s what he gave away. But
late last year, FBI agents visited the headquarters of the Mashpee
Wampanoag tribe in Massachusetts. It turns out that the
Wampanoags’ 30-year struggle to gain national tribal
recognition made sudden progress after they hired Abramoff as their
lobbyist — and contributed $20,000 to Pombo’s political
action committees. Pombo had considerable say in the Wampanoag
case: The Native American Affairs Subcommittee is part of his
Resources Committee.
This kind of conflict of interest
complicates Pombo’s two current ambitions — to get the
Senate to pass his emasculation of the Endangered Species Act, and
to get re-elected.
Pombo’s ESA bill narrowly passed
the House late last year. Its chances in the Senate, never very
good, grow worse as the image of its chief sponsor does; a
congressman has less clout when he (a) is under investigation, and
(b) could lose his seat.
Pombo is less likely to lose his
seat than his critics like to think. Yes, Pombo will face primary
opposition from Pete McCloskey, the liberal Republican who left
Congress in 1982 after 15 years, during which he helped write the
Endangered Species Act. McCloskey, though ruggedly handsome and
outspoken, is 78 (Pombo recently turned 45), just moved into the
district, and probably would have a better chance as a Democrat.
Complicating matters somewhat, 70-year-old businessman
Tom Benigno plans to enter the GOP primary, associating his
campaign with the anti-immigration views of Colorado Rep. Tom
Tancredo. Benigno, then, would run to Pombo’s right, no doubt
taking more votes from him than from McCloskey.
Still,
Pombo is expected to win the primary, after which he will face
either Jerry McNerney, an engineer he beat in 2004, or former Navy
pilot Steve Filson. A third candidate, self-described activist
Steve Thomas, is not given much chance.
Pombo’s
district is shaped almost as weirdly as the famous Massachusetts
district that inspired the word “gerrymander.” Like all California
districts, it was artfully drawn to protect its incumbent and his
party.
By the usual political arithmetic, that makes the
district noncompetitive. But that was before its incumbent’s
connections to Abramoff and other shady characters were quite as
well known. Pombo could still win, but I wouldn’t bet the
family fortune on it.
Jon Margolis is a
contributor to Writers on the Range, a service of High
Country News (hcn.org). He writes about the doings in
Washington, D.C., from a safe distance —
Vermont.
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