MyDD Conversation With CA-11 Candidate Jerry McNerney

MyDD Conversation With CA-11 Candidate Jerry McNerney

by Jonathan Singer, Mon May 22, 2006 at 02:24:52 PM EST

On Friday morning, I had the opportunity to speak with Jerry McNerney over the telephone about his House campaign in California's 11th district this year. McNerney's main competition for the Democratic nomination to challenge GOP Rep. Richard Pombo is Steve Filson, with whom we also be willing to speak.

McNerney and I covered a range of issues during our conversation, including energy, immigration, the environment, Iraq, domestic spying, and why the progressive blogosphere should get involved in the campaign. You can listen to the interview here (warning: an 12.7 megabyte .wav) or read the rush transcript below.

Jonathan Singer: Let's start with the issue of corruption. There have been charges swirling around your Republican you are challenging, Richard Pombo. I'm wondering how much talk there is in the district - I know there's a lot of talk in the blogosphere - but how much talk in the district is there about those charges?

Jerry McNerney: There's plenty of talk and there's plenty of awareness. People are aware of the things that he's doing and it's strange that they weren't aware of it in the last election, but there's a much greater sensitivity to those issues now.

I think just the barrage of issues, the barrage of things that he did came out in the open within the last two years, such as that $5,000 trip that he took on the government money and the misuse of franking privileges and paying his family so much money out of campaign funds. For some reason the thing that sticks the most is that $5,000 RV trip.

Singer: I know there's a lot of talk, also, about Jack Abramoff specifically within the national press and others. I'm wondering is that playing as well in the district?

McNerney: Well it's hard for me to know exactly, but certainly the people I am associated with and the people I run in to are aware of what Jack Abramoff has done and Pombo's connection with him. I think even more important would be the Hurwitz connection, although that doesn't seem to have as much traction for some reason.

Singer: Let's move on to a few issues that are pretty central to the Central Valley, I guess you could put it, starting with immigration, which is kind of the big one right now in Congress. There are a lot of - you can call them illegal aliens, you can call them undocumented workers - working around where your district is, inside your district. Do you think people in your district are looking for those people all to be expelled from your district, as some in the Republican Party would push, or are they more and are you more in favor of a more balanced approach that would allow them to earn their citizenship?

McNerney: Jonathan, I haven't seen too much interest in exporting all of the undocumented people in this country. I haven't seen too much of that, although I have had one or two messages along those lines. Most people are interested in something that's more balanced, and that's certainly where I stand. The Kennedy-McCain approach I think is pretty good and it would be beneficial to our country.

Another thing that we hear a little it more now more and more is the idea that NAFTA and CAFTA could be improved, and that would help the situation as well.

Singer: So what type of improvements would you like to see to those trade agreements and future trade agreements?

McNerney: I think it's important that we import products to this country that are produced under conditions that are livable, where people make decent wages and where they have environmental protections. And that will help protect workers overseas and it will protect workers here at home.

Singer: Another issue that is very close to the minds of people in the Central Valley - I certainly noticed it while driving through your district on the way from Southern California to Northern California, or Oregon through Northern California - was gas prices, and they are extremely high. I know you have a background in energy. What types of steps should America be taking and what would you do were you elected to Congress to wean America off of foreign oil?

McNerney: Well, Jonathan, the first priority would be to make our automobiles more efficient. We have the technology right now available. Europeans are using it, with turbo-diesel, with plug-in hybrids and with using lighter materials such as carbon fibers. We could be getting well more than 50 miles per gallon with our cars. And I would be pushing to have the [CAFE] standards raised really quickly to meet those sort of goals. And that would have a tremendous impact. If you could imagine what it would do to the price of gasoline if our cars were averaging 50 miles per gallon, it would go down pretty quickly.

Singer: You have some expertise in the area of wind development, I know. Certainly in Southern California driving east on the 10 you see a lot of wind farms near Palm Springs, and there are certainly others all around the country. Do you see wind as a viable alternative to some of the dirtier energy sources, or is it one small cog in the entire energy picture?

McNerney: I see wind as having a significant impact, Jonathan. There's a significant wind resource in this country, especially in the Dakotas and the upper Midwest. There's enough wind energy up there to supply a significant portion of our electrical needs, if we develop the infrastructure to support that. It may seem ironic, but the wind resource here in California is relatively small compared to those areas in [Midwest].

Singer: An issue that's closely tied to this energy, specifically with the wind issue, is the environment. Richard Pombo has been a fierce opponent of some of the most important, most useful pieces of environmental legislation that passed during the 70s. And in fact, as you well know, there's a former Republican Congressman, McCloskey, who is running against him on that issue. Are you also talking about the environment as you go around the district?

McNerney: The environment is an important issue to many people. It depends on how you discuss it. The word environment does have some baggage with it, but if you talk about issues like clean air, boy people in the Central Valley certainly understand that because asthma is such a problem out there. And clean water. So it really depends on how you frame your discussion, Jonathan.

I also want to mention I had a diary on Daily Kos about three or four days ago on wind energy. It was very in depth. A lot of the netroots are very knowledgeable on the subject. It was very impressive.

Singer: Let's move from domestic issues to a couple of national security issues starting with Iraq. The situation in Iraq, and even in Afghanistan, appears to be, well, let's just say below the expectations that were set several years when we went into those two countries. Congressman Murtha from Pennsylvania has put forward a plan to set a deadline for redeploying troops - in other words moving them out of the country to neighboring areas. Do you support the plan? Or what do you believe should be done in Iraq?

McNerney: I'm 100 percent in favor of Congressman Murtha's plan for several reasons. First of all, I think that we can have widespread, broad support for that approach.

But really what it comes down to is if we put a public timetable out there, we'll put the Iraqis on notice that they need to be responsible for their own security and it will give them an urgency to find solutions to their differences. Another thing that it will do is it will give the United Nations an opportunity and a motive to get involved in Iraq and be part of the solution. So those two things together I think could end up making that the best possible alternative for our national policy in Iraq.

Singer: With the nomination of Michael Hayden to head the CIA, there's been more focus - perhaps not more known - but certainly more focus on some of the tactics used by the NSA under his watch to surveil Americans, whether it is international telephone calls being wiretapped without prior court approval or a warrant at all or, allegedly, at least according to the USA Today, data being collected on even domestic calls of tens of millions of Americans. What would you do in Congress to try and get back some of the balance towards the checks and balances on this issue?

McNerney: Well it is very disturbing that laws appear to have been broken, and in fact without need because the mechanism is in there to take action if needed on a short-term basis and get approval within 72 hours. So I don't think there was any call for them to be doing secret collection of data, data trolling, data mining and that sort of thing without approval of the courts. If those laws need to be strengthened in Congress, then we need to strengthen them. But my opinion is the laws are there, the laws are sufficient. They just need to be enforced. And we need to have sufficient Congressional oversight of what happens in the White House.

Singer: Let's talk just a little bit of politics before I let you go. You've got a primary on June 6 against Steve Filson. What are going to be doing between now and then to try to ensure victory?

McNerney: Jonathan, we're just going to work on the network, the relationships, the organization that's already in place. We have a tremendous grassroots organization. People are stepping up and helping us. And we want to just continue to work the grassroots with the tremendous amount of labor support that as come forward. The California Federation of Labor - 2 million members - is stepping in to help us. Many of the individual labor unions... And continue to reach out to the individuals and make connections, show them that we have a positive vision for our district and for our nation. And basically walk the precincts, press the flesh and do face-to-face communicating, Jonathan. That's what it's all about.

Singer: One of the interesting things about the primary campaign there in the 11th district is the split support of Democrats. You have Congressional Democrats - a lot of the Congress people from your area, surrounding districts - are supporting your opponent, Mr. Filson whereas a lot of the state party apparatus and people within the district are supporting you. Can you talk a little bit about how that came to be and what it means to this campaign?

McNerney: I think it's an interesting dynamic, Jonathan. We have been working on relationships for the last two years and building trust and reaching out to people, talking to people, getting vision for what's needed for the country. Because of that, the grassroots, the California Democratic Party, every single Democratic club in the district (that's endorsed) has come forth has endorsed our race. We feel like we're connecting to the people in this district. In fact you can look at our financial records. We have, just this year, about 1,500 donors, small dollar amounts. That's where most of our money is coming from. So we're really reaching out to the people. We're the candidate of the people.

Now I really can't speak for members of Congress. They certainly have their own agenda and idea of how to win election. But when it comes down to it, we need to put someone in office who represents the people, not really the interests of Washington, DC. And that's what we're fighting so hard for, Jonathan.

Singer: Final question. You talked a little bit about posting on Daily Kos and the netroots. If there's one message you'd like to send out to the readers of the progressive blogosphere, what would that be?

McNerney: I think the important thing in this context really is that the internet, the netroots, the blogging... all that stuff has opened up democracy in a way that wasn't possible before, and I think it really empowers our democracy. So I really challenge people that would be interested to keep participating and to broaden this sphere of influence, because this is how we take America forward as a country of the people rather than a country of the corporations.

For example, this net neutrality issue. To me, it's absurd that that would even be an issue right now. We need to protect the neutrality of the network and let people get into it as individuals at an equal basis. I can tell you when I get to Congress next year, I'm going to be looking at the blog, because you get a lot of unfiltered information from the blog and it's very refreshing.

Singer: Terrific. Well thank you so much for your time and good luck in your campaign.

McNerney: Thank you, Jonathan. I appreciate your time, too.

http://www.mydd.com/story/2006/5/22/142452/955