Lisa Vorderbrueggen at the Lamorinda Dem Club

UPDATE 1/15: Lisa Vorderbrueggen helped report on an article entitled "Pombo Aide Under Fire for Finances" that was published today. Go read it here.

VPO and I made it over to the Lamorinda Democratic Club last night to hear Lisa Vorderbrueggen of the Contra Costa Times. I went both to the meeting both to hear what Lisa Vorderbrueggen had to say about Contra Costa politics and to get a feel for what the club members were thinking about the race in CA-11. I found out interesting information on both counts.

Before I get into my report, let me plug an upcoming event at the Lamorinda Democratic Club’s next meeting. Next month the club is going to host a candidate forum for the three Democrats running to replace Congressman Richard Pombo, which is the first one scheduled if I’m not mistaken. Furthermore, the Lamorinda Club is a club that is very effective in their activism (they are also one of the largest clubs in the state) and very progressive in their politics. Their candidate forum ought to be interesting, especially because it’s difficult to imagine any serious candidate refusing an invitation to speak at a candidate’s night, which is not something you can say about all of the Democratic clubs. I encourage everyone to come, especially if you live in Alameda or Contra Costa counties. Anyhow, here is more info on the event.

When I arrived at the event I pretty quickly ran into someone affiliated with Pete McCloskey (I think he came for a similar reasons as me). I had a chance to speak with him a bit and I tried to press him on whether McCloskey was running or not. He told me that McCloskey would make an announcement later this month (I forget if he said the 23rd or the 28th) about who would run against Richard Pombo in the Republican primary. I certainly hope it’s McCloskey, and I know a number of you feel the same way.

The other interesting tidbit I heard before Lisa Vorderbrueggen spoke was that the California Democratic Party might be giving bounties on registering new Democrats in CA-11. This would really benefit the clubs in the area who would be able to afford running a volunteer voter registration drive if such bounties are indeed offered. I still need to pin down the ins and outs of this, but at least in principle giving a couple of dollars for each newly registered Democrat would do a lot to incentive is the type of voter registration work in the district that desperately needs to take place.

Lastly, I should just mention that Jerry McNerney attended the event and was given a brief opportunity to speak from the podium. He more or less said the same thing he said at the Defenders of Wildlife event (although he seemed a bit more nervous this time). Importantly, to those of you who read the comments at Say No to Pombo, McNerney did not say one word about his primary opponents.

When Mrs. Vorderbrueggen spoke, she covered a lot of ground about Contra Costa politics, including a lot that is frankly irrelevant to the race we’re focusing one. But she did say some interesting things in her speech and in the subsequent question and answer session.

One thing, perhaps the most immediately important to the readers of this site, is that she strongly believes that it is unlikely that state Senator Mike Machado will run against Pombo this election. Perhaps this is more confirmation of what we already knew, but it certainly sounds like everyone who has spoken to Machado’s aides comes away thinking that he’s opposed to entering the race. For those who don’t know, Machado had a pretty fierce battle against a former (if I recall correctly) Stockton Mayor in 2004, and was elected to a four year term, after which he will be termed out of office. It makes a lot of sense that he is not inclined to give up his hard-fought seat to take on Pombo in 2006 when Machado will be in great position to take on Pombo in 2008 if Pombo is still in office. One other funny side note on the topic of Machado’s prospects in 2006 is that Vorderbrueggen credited Say No to Pombo with alerting her to the MoveOn poll that lists Machado as a possible recruit in CA-11.

The other thing I want to focus on that Vorderbrueggen spoke about was her take on the race writ large. To me, I think she articulated a lot of the conventional wisdom on the race, and it’s important to keep her non-partisan perspective in mind, even if we disagree with it.

She began by implying that the Democrats have a pretty tough row to hoe in 2006 against Pombo. She definitely thinks that it will be difficult for what she called “Danville Democrats” to generate voter support in San Joaquin County. I think we all realize that cracking the San Joaquin problem will do a lot towards winning the district, although I think there are differences between Danville, where Filson lives, and Pleasanton, where McNerney lives. Certainly, Danville is a newer, wealthier city than Pleasanton, and I think a lot of people associate Danville with Blackhawk, which is an ultra-wealthy enclave. But she’s right that any candidate coming from west of the Altamont Pass is bound to have a tougher time than someone from the Central Valley, at least with the San Joaquin County voters.

Vorderbrueggen also seemed to think that talking about the “Republican Culture of Corruption” (a phrase commonly used in the blogosphere and by the Democratic Congressional delegation) would only cause Pombo’s supporters to dig in, especially if the phrase is tied to Nancy Pelosi. She may be right here, but I’m inclined to think that if Pombo cannot be (accurately) painted as corrupt, the Democrats are already in deep trouble.

Tied to the previous point, Vorderbrueggen also said that the Dems should be wary of calling Pombo corrupt because he may or may not be tied to the Abramoff scandal, but in any case there is no evidence that Pombo has broken the law. Also, she said this against the implicit assumption that since both Democrats and Republicans took money from Indian tribes connected to Abramoff, both parties are somehow equally culpable for the ensuing corruption.

I’m not sure that I agree with many of her assumptions, but getting into why I disagree would involve getting into the Abramoff scandal itself, which is tangential to this post. You ought to read Josh Marshall’s Talking Points Memo blog if you want to know who most influences my thinking on the subject.

But one assumption I do want to take on is the idea that charges of corruption or ethical lapses are only acceptable if they are tied to an indictment or a guilty verdict. There question in my mind is not whether Richard Pombo ought to be sent to jail. The real question is whether he ought to be sent back to Washington to represent the interests of his constituents.

Richard Pombo, for example, has spent quite a bit of time and energy supporting the resumption of commercial whaling by the Makah Tribe off of Washington State. You really ought to wonder what a Congressman from the Central Valley is doing concerning himself with commercial whaling in Washington. Is Pombo, who represents part of one of the poorest areas in the country, who represents a district with some of the dirtiest air in the country, who represent a district with the most congested highway in California, really fulfilling his duty to represent his constituents by worrying about commercial whaling? Although any Congressperson will doubtlessly spend time on idiosyncratic projects, I think it is telling that Richard Pombo has spent his time waging a holy jihad against the fundamental environmental laws in the country instead of trying to solve the problems of his district. Richard Pombo is playing Don Quixote and Captain Ahab wrapped together while his district’s needs go unmet. And I am deeply, deeply suspicious of the seeming congruence between all of the objects of Pombo’s attention and all of the desires of Pombo’s campaign contributors. Tell me, do you think Richard Pombo would cut one subsidy for Big Oil with the alacrity that he cut the budget for food stamps? Somehow Pombo’s moral compass always seems to point to his pocketbook, and he might not have done anything illegal, but to me he’s still an unethical and has no business doing the people’s business.

Tags: CA-11, Richard Pombo, Steve Filson, Jerry McNerney, Pete McCloskey, Mike Machado, Lisa Vorderbrueggen, Lamorinda Democratic Club, voter registration, ethics, corruption