Forum turns heated when three GOP candidates square off in
Tracy’s circus atmosphere
Richard Pombo came out to play, but only once. The 11th District
incumbent Congressman finally agreed to face his opponents,
Republican challengers Pete McCloskey and Tom Benigno, for his
first and only political primary forum held Monday night in Tracy,
Pombo’s hometown and political stronghold.
Forum turns heated when three GOP candidates square off in Tracy’s circus atmosphere
Richard Pombo came out to play, but only once.
The 11th District incumbent Congressman finally agreed to face his opponents, Republican challengers Pete McCloskey and Tom Benigno, for his first and only political primary forum held Monday night in Tracy, Pombo’s hometown and political stronghold.
And being that it was the only chance voters had to see the candidates square off, supporters and campaign handlers on all sides seized the national media moment, turning the event into a massive circus-like soapbox.
At least 500 people packed the forum held in a gymnasium at Williams Middle School, but the show started long before the panel from the Tracy Press, sponsors of the event, asked the first question of the candidates.
Pombo campaigners arrived early, plastering the school grounds with signs – many removed later by school administrators. A McCloskey supporter dressed as Abe Lincoln, replete with 1860s’ attire and stovepipe hat, was a focal point of a bank of network cameras; he got into a shoving match with sign-waving Pombo supporters. Pombo’s guys circled the block in an ice cream truck tricked out as a moving Pombo billboard that blared patriotic music; the driver reportedly yelled insults at McCloskey supporters, and when the McCloskey camp complained to a cop, the driver was issued a citation.
“He should have stuck to ice cream,” said McCloskey supporter Laura Wuest, who campaigns for the former congressman in the Morgan Hill/Gilroy area. Wuest toted a sign that read, “Mr. Pombo: Why do you have a zero rating on support for veterans?”
There’s no mistaking that Tracy, indeed much of the San Joaquin Valley, is, as Pombo “true believers” like to say, “Pombo Country.” In Tracy, streets are named after the politician, and on nearly every corner a Pombo campaign sign is planted.
But times are a-changing. Pombo, a champion of developers, has been implicated in the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal and accused by mainstream environmental groups of gutting the Endangered Species Act. Recently, the political watchdog group CREW (Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington) named Pombo as one of the 13 most corrupt members of Congress. He has earned the rebukes of editors of the San Jose Mercury News and L.A. Times.
And ironically, because of the helping legislative hand Pombo – as chair of the powerful House Resources Committee – has lent to big business and development interests, the Central Valley is no longer just a rural outpost of powerful dairy operators and cotton farmers.
Towns like Tracy and nearby Patterson have become sprawling bedroom communities filled with strip malls and commuters, many whom work in the Bay Area. The result of this migration of Bay Area voters into Pombo’s district could result in a change in the voter base, which was reflected at the Tracy forum — teeming with environmentalists and McCloskey supporters from near and far. (See related story.)
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