[Sosfbay-discuss] Congressman Richard Pombo

[Wes Rolley]

Many members of this list have sent me material about my congressman, 
Richard Pombo.  I really appreciate the gesture, though very little has 
been new news for me.  I get regular news alerts based on just Pombo's 
name and that brings almost everything to my inbasket.  I also have 
contacts into all of the opposition campaigns and they all feed me stuff.

It does appear that the tide is turning and Pombo's time may be waning.  
The story is in today's Stockton Record 
<http://recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060511/NEWS01/605110337/1001>. 


This means that the campaign is likely to get very dirty very quickly.

Just some additional comments:

- the role of the blogosphere is probably limited. I will note that my 
PomboWatch is visited from  approximately  1,500 different IP addresses 
each month.  I also know that one regular reader is the Communications 
Director of the House Committee on Resources and a very often quoted 
Pombo stand-in, Brian Kennedy.  (And I do enjoy taking a jab at 
him...especially when he goofs in a Press Release.)

- the most meaningful thing that I have done is to develop an ongoing 
dialog with several influential newspaper writers, both of new stories 
and editorials.  The key here is that they are busy and I have to be 
willing to spend a little time helping them do their job better, for 
which they are willing to put up with my partisan comments and even my 
critique of their reporting.  As a result, I even get asked to supply 
research into their stories, even though they know that my take will 
have some bias. As opposed to other blogs, I consider that press to be 
my most important readership.

- the result of this is that I have built up a very good background 
knowledge of who is doing, saying, what as well as the stories on Jack 
Abramoff, Pombo's fight against the Endangered Species Act, whaling 
(Pombo is for it), National Park Service Management Plan, etc.  Then, I 
could quickly connect a Resources Committee (Pombo Chairman) staffer to 
the "National ESA Reform Coalition" and the lobby firm of Van Ness 
Feldman.  (shared phone numbers, common principles, money transfers, etc.).

I have been at this for over 2 years. However, the result is that by now 
most of the people in the district view Pombo as being more interested 
in supporting his corporate backers than in doing good for his constituency.

We have less than a month to go before the primary and Pete McCloskey is 
picking up endorsement every day.

-- 
"Anytime you have an opportunity to make things better and you don't, then you are wasting your time on this Earth" Roberto Clemente

Wes Rolley
17211 Quail Court, Morgan Hill, CA 95037
http://www.refpub.com/ -- Tel: 408.778.3024