The Soul of the Party

You are entitled to view with skepticism why a 78-year-old retired farmer and attorney from Yolo County would move 90 miles to San Joaquin County in order to challenge incumbent Congressman Richard Pombo of Tracy.

That's how former Republican Representative Pete McCloskey begins his campaign to the unseat anti-environmental crusader who currently heads up the House Resources Committee. McCloskey, a decorated Marine, 15-year veteran of Congress and all-around straight-shooter sees the contest as nothing less than a battle for the soul of his party.

I run, in part, because I believe the key question of the Republican Party today is whether we go back to historic Republican principles of integrity, fiscal responsibility, limited government and environmental balance, or do we go the way of the DeLay Republicans, (1) with no ethics enforcement, (2) an understandable public perception that Republicans give undue preference to big-money contributors, (3) a huge and ever-growing bureaucracy, and (4) a constant erosion of the environmental protections for community health, and park and wilderness lands that have been established over 30 years.

You can hear more from Mr. McCloskey himself in this interview with Living on Earth. McCloskey has already challenged Pombo to a series of debates, but the Pombo camp has so far ducked.