This pretty much sums up what the San Jose Mercury News has to say about this race. It’s good news for anyone seeking to bring some sanity back to California’s 11th Congressional district:

Give the nod to Pombo challengers
REPUBLICAN MCCLOSKEY, DEMOCRAT MCNERNEY WOULD BE WORTHY COMPETITORS IN THE FALL

Even before he became associated with the sleaze surrounding disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff, even before he was accused of taking a family vacation on the government’s dime and even before a watchdog group called him one of the 13 most corrupt members of Congress, it was clear that Richard Pombo had to go.

The conservative seven-term Republican congressman from Tracy has a record of radical anti-environmentalism that has imperiled the nation’s natural resources, is wrong for the country and is out of step with a state that’s known for its environmental leadership.

Fortunately, Pombo’s record may be catching up with him. He faces serious challenges to his re-election from both sides of the aisle in a race that has drawn national attention. His 11th Congressional District reaches from Lodi in the north to Morgan Hill in the south and Danville in the east.

Pombo faces challenge from within and without. Paul “Pete” McCloskey, a moderate Republican, is challenging him in the primary. McCloskey represented my area from 1967 to 1983. He is known for being an early opponent of Nixon’s actions in the Vietnam War, and IIRC has spoken out against Bush and the Iraq war. He also helped to write the Endangered Species Act…the act that Pombo has worked to destroy. He would be a Republican, but not your average Republican…I could easily see him crossing the aisle to vote with the Democrats to conduct investigations into Bush’s actions at home and abroad.

On the Democratic side, two candidates are running in the primary — Steve Filson and Jerry McNerney. While the Mercury News has good things to say about both candidates, McNerney’s campaign experience (he ran against Pombo in 2004) seems to get him the nod from the newspaper.

The final paragraph of the editorial tells the story of the Democratic Party in a nutshell:

McNerney ran against Pombo in 2004 and got 39 percent of the vote, despite receiving no support from the state or national Democratic Party and being massively outspent by Pombo. That experience should come in handy in November.

[emphasis mine]

A political outsider getting no support from the party Powers-That-Be…where have we seen this before?

The California primary is June 6 — after that date, we’ll have a better picture of where we stand (and where we need to devote our time, talent and treasure). But this should be interesting to watch, as another member of the Republicans’ “culture of corruption” faces challenges from within and without his own party.

[editor’s note, by Cali Scribe] Tip o’ the nib to SFJen at dKos for supplying this link: Left on 580, for those interested in helping defeat Pombo…