Holding Richard Pombo Accountable

Byron Roberts is a Stockton resident and CA-11 voter who has been compelled to speak out this summer about his Congressman, Richard Pombo. SNTP readers were first introduced to Byron by Delta in his post Joining the Chorus. Delta told the story of how Byron carefully gathered information so that he could write a letter to the Tracy Press which was published on July 31.

At around the same time, Byron was also involved in sending a letter to Richard Pombo asking him to appear at a town hall meeting to explain himself to the voters of CA-11. This is Byron on the phone in Richard Pombo’s district office, speaking with his chief scheduler in Washington, DC.


When his group’s request was dismissed by Pombo’s Congressional spokesman as a “political stunt,” Byron again wrote a letter to the Tracy Press, this one expressing his dismay that Pombo would refuse to meet with his constituents to address their legitimate concerns and wondering out loud why Pombo is afraid to meet with them.

Recently, Byron has been in touch with SNTP and has requested that we print his July 31 letter in its entirety. So without further ado, here is Byron’s letter:

I noticed that on July 11, Rep. Richard Pombo of Tracy, and his Republican cronies in Congress stopped Democratic efforts to raise the minimum wage. American workers are struggling to make ends meet. What Pombo voted for ensures millions of Americans will remain in poverty. Why is it that a country with the most productive workforce in the world can't give poor, working-class citizens a few dollars an hour more for their hard work, but can afford to give a tax break of $42,000 to those making a million dollars or more.

How can Pombo call himself a conservative when he cuts taxes while the federal deficit is at an all-time high? How can he consider himself a Christian when he denies working people who need help, yet reward the ultra-rich?

Meanwhile, President Bush's war on terror is a miserable failure. His regime spies on its citizens. The Republicans support his failed foreign policies. He vetoes the stem-cell research bill even though the majority of Americans overwhelmingly supports such research. Our borders are unprotected, so that rich industrial patrons of the Republican Party have access to cheap labor. The Republicans want to make outrageous tax breaks to the super-rich permanent, while our great-grandchildren will be paying off the Republican's largest budget deficit in the history of our country.

This corrupt president and Republican Congress can spend $300 billion on Iraq, yet our infrastructure is falling apart.

One has to wonder if the battered working people of America will have the courage to change the direction of the nation on Election Day or will they continue to believe the Republican hyperbole about how they are going to put a stop to gay marriage and abortion yet again?

-- Byron Roberts, Stockton

I sincerely hope that we’ll all be hearing more from Byron. I also hope that other residents of CA-11 who are unhappy with their Congressman, Richard Pombo, will follow Byron’s example and speak out. This is still a democracy, and politicians like Richard Pombo need to understand that ultimately they must answer to their constituents, not the special interests.

Tags: CA-11, Richard Pombo, ethics, corruption, minimum wage, Jerry McNerney