Resurgent Pombo Taps Anti-Enviro Vein in Bid for Calif. Seat

Four years after being voted from office, former Rep. Richard Pombo (R) of California is attempting to resurrect his political career in a new district where few voters know his record for seeking to rewrite some of the nation's premier environmental laws. But observers of environmental politics during the 1990s and 2000s are all too familiar with Pombo, whose re-emergence has set off a flurry of opposition from advocacy groups who believe his return to Congress would rekindle the rancorous -- and some say anti-environmental -- debates that defined his tenure as chairman of the House Resources Committee from 2003 to 2008. Now, many of those same groups, led by the Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund, are pulling out the stops for the June 8 Republican primary election in the nearby 19th District, where Pombo is seeking to replace the retiring Rep. George Radanovich (R). As part of the campaign, environmental groups are running radio ads claiming that while in office Pombo tried to sell national parks to private developers and sponsoring robo-calls accusing him of violating federal bribery laws. "He represents to them the devil incarnate with respect to environmental issues," said Bruce Cain, a political expert at the University of California, Berkeley. But Pombo, 49, who describes himself as a San Joaquin County cattle rancher, has a very real shot at winning the Republican nomination for the District 19 seat, according to Cain and other campaign watchers...more