Capital Press - Timber Issues Split Candidates

News Article

Hank Shaw

The outcome of most of California's congressional races is not in doubt, but two of the closest contests reach into Northern California's farm country.

Independent political analysts say the races in the 4th and 11th districts are close. The 4th District encompasses the eastern suburbs of Sacramento and then stretches up California's eastern border to Oregon. The 11th District centers on San Joaquin County, but includes a sizable portion of Contra Costa County, as well as slivers of Santa Clara and Alameda counties.

Cattle ranching, rice farming and some winegrape growing are done in the 4th District, but the district's dominant agriculture is timber.

Dairying, tomato processing, winegrapes, almond and walnuts dominate San Joaquin County, which is one of the nation's leading agricultural counties.

Politically, freshman incumbent Rep. Jerry McNerney, D-Pleasanton, is the favorite in the 11th District, while state Sen. Tom McClintock of Thousand Oaks is the favorite in the 4th District.

McClintock moved to the district from Southern California to run for the seat, which became open after incumbent Rep. John Doolittle decided to retire.

McNerney faces former state Assemblyman Dean Andal, who works for a development company while serving on a local school board.

McClintock faces retired Air Force Lt. Col. Charlie Brown, who narrowly lost to Doolittle in the 2006 elections.

Of the four candidates, only Brown in the 4th District comes from an agricultural background; he grew up on a farm in Iowa, where he worked until joining the Air Force. Brown is also the only hunter in the bunch.

None of the candidates has spent a great deal of time working on agricultural issues. McNerney is a renewable energy expert; Andal's career has focused on tax issues - he was once a member of the State Board of Equalization; Brown has been campaigning heavily on veteran's affairs; while McClintock is one of the state's leading small-government advocates.

That stance has led McClintock to call for eliminating the federal farm bill entirely, using the money to lower taxes.

"I think that $300 billion would be far better spent by providing the tax relief that's necessary to bring new capital into the market," McClintock said in Oroville earlier this month. "I do believe that we need to relieve from agriculture a lot of the regulations and restrictions that are hampering their ability to prosper, but we don't need to subsidize them, we need to get out of their way."

McClintock's opponent Brown does not hold the same view. He supports the broad tenets of the farm bill, although he said, "it's still oriented toward big corporate farms instead of the small farmer."

Brown and McClintock both agree that at the very least Congress needs to lower the cap on how much farmers can earn and still qualify for direct subsidy payments.

In addition, Brown supports ethanol subsidies, while McClintock does not. McClintock says the 10 percent ethanol requirement for gasoline will push out land needed to produce food.

Both Brown and McClintock largely agree on what the federal government should do to help restore a sound timber industry in the state: Allow thinning and salvage logging.

"That one to me is the most obvious regulation that need to be streamlined," Brown said. "We need to let the loggers in and get that wood out."

McClintock spoke on this topic during a forest fire summit held at the state Capitol in September: "Timber is a renewable resource - if properly managed it is literally an inexhaustible source of prosperity.

"And yet, a region blessed with the most bountiful renewable resource in the state has been rendered economically prostrate. A region that once prospered from its surplus timber now is ravaged by fires that are fueled by that surplus timber."

Brown also said he will push to make permanent the Secure Rural Schools Act, which was just extended in the congressional bailout legislation. The act helps rural areas that cannot raise local tax revenue because most of their land is in federally preserved forest.

In the 11th District, the agricultural debate has been about biofuels.

Both candidates support ethanol subsidies - Pacific Ethanol just opened a huge plant in Stockton - and both want to make San Joaquin County a renewable energy hub.

McNerney says his other main agricultural focus is to permanently eliminate the federal inheritance tax for farmers and small businesses.

"That's feedback he got directly from listening to farmers and ranchers in the district," McNerney spokesman Andy Stone said.

McNerney sponsored legislation to do this last year and has promised to bring the bill up again if he's re-elected.

Andal, for his part, has not said much about agriculture on the campaign trail, nor does he say anything about farming or ranching on his campaign website.

Still, Andal has generated significant financial support from agribusiness, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. Andal has collected about $55,000 from agribusiness, compared to $22,000 for McNerney.

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