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SUMMARY OF SIERRA CLUB POLITICAL COMMITTEE ACTIVITY IN 2006 POMBO/MCNERNEY RACE Regardless of the outcome of the race between Congressman Richard Pombo and challenger Jerry McNerney tomorrow, there will be talk about what role environmental groups played in making the race too-close-to-call. By any measure, Pombo should have been sitting pretty. He's a committee chair with all of the trappings of an incumbent in a district that has a decided Republican advantage in voter registration. And he was running a generously funded campaign against a virtually unknown and unseasoned candidate, who didn't even have financial support from the Democratic Party until late in the game. Despite those odds, the Sierra Club Political Committee made the race one of its national priorities last winter and surpassed even our own expectations. WHAT WE DID Sierra Club Political Committee focused its efforts on turning out a base and swing voters to vote against Richard Pombo and for his opponent Jerry McNerney. Toward that end, we conducted voter and opinion research and micro-targeting and then used this information to guide our mailing, phone calling, and both paid canvass and volunteer door-knocking efforts. We recruited hundreds of volunteers from our membership base to support the phone banking and precinct walks and to turn out at key events. We also used countless opportunities in the mainstream media to remind voters of Pombo's especially close ties to Big Oil, and we have moving billboards reaching commuters who live in and around Tracy blaming Pombo for local traffic woes. While much of the work that the Sierra Club Political Committee did was done in collaboration with other environmental groups, including Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund, the League of Conservation Voters, and Clean Water Action, we played the leading role in a few key areas:
THE IMPACT WE'VE HAD All of this work has clearly had an impact on the race. A recent Washington Post political roundup, which also named Pombo's re-election campaign one of the worst run in the nation, summed it up nicely: "Pombo has also taken an extended beating from environmental groups over the past year and it has taken its toll. Even though President Bush carried this district by nine points in 2004, Pombo is in a toss up race with five days left." The "Human Events: The National Conservative Weekly, has also acknowledged our role, albeit in a slightly different tone: "One of the few real conservative heroes in the current Congress, Rep. Richard Pombo of California, is in danger of being defeated for re-election because of an all-out assault by left-wing environmental groups and the moneyed elite who support environmental zealotry." Even Pombo's campaign has been publicly crediting environmental groups with making the race into a toss-up. BY THE NUMBERS
* Includes spending for primary and general election and for member advocacy and direct political work.
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