Pete McCloskey on Development

Pete McCloskey lost the Republican Primary to Richard Pombo. Then, he turned around and endorsed the Democratic candidate, Jerry McNerney. At least, this has created a national buzz in the blogosphere. The Huffington Post is one place, but not the only one. Frequent contributor, Dave Johnson has a long letter from McCloskey. This is a good letter, but the nation-wide public reaction is even more interesting. The usual Red State Trolls did not post. McCloskey was almost universally praised.

You can read a lot about the even in these comments, of which I quote one, posted by nom de blog "davefoc"

copy of the email I sent to local Orange, County, CA Republican party:

I have voted Republican almost exclusively all my life. I have entered semi-retirement and had even considered doing some volunteer work for the Republican party.

The Republican Party no longer is an entity that I intend to support in anyway on the national level. It is my intention to vote for Democrats until at least they have obtained control of the house and the senate.

I was never a social conservative and just accepted that part of the Republican Party because I believed in the basic ideas of limited government that the Republican Party seemed to stand for. Now that the Republican Party has abandoned economic conservatism for a system of legislation by legalized kickbacks from various interest groups it is beyond me why any American should continue to support the criminal organization that the GOP has become.

I offer you this article as just a tiny example of what I am talking about:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/17/AR2...

Do Republican legislators even fantasize any more that they are serving their country? Or has the entire party been taken over by cynical politicians that only glory in service to their own self-interest?

By: davefoc on July 28, 2006 at 07:30pm

In today's Lodi New-Sentinal, McCloske wrote an OpEd that tell us all a lot about the district. Lodi is relevant for a couple of reasons. First, it is the location of a well publicized Islamic Militant trial. Second, this is the town where McCloskey moved so that he could run against Pombo. His normal residence had been in Yolo County. As McCloskey recaps the events of the primary, he tells the real story of the San Joaquin Valley and the hold that developers have on the political structure.

His conclusion is pessimistic. "Citizen apathy remains our greatest failure in our own privileged government of the people, for the people, and by the people." It is really very much worth everyone's reading this piece. Having been involved in many discussions during this race, I have the same concern as Pete. I have seen the same things that he sees. I also see that the urban, coastal population is viewed as the enemy, as a group of people who just don't get it, as people that you should not trust, but it is ok to sell them a house.

I started the blog partly because I was convinced that the future meaningful conflicts in California will be played out in the Central Valley. I am more convinced of that than ever.