'Mr. Smith' (AKA Jerry McNerney) home from Washington

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PLEASANTON
'Mr. Smith' home from Washington
Congressman-elect already looking toward next run in '08
Rachel Gordon, Chronicle Staff Writer
Sunday, December 17, 2006



The words were like gold to Jerry McNerney, the Democratic congressman-elect from Pleasanton who beat a powerful GOP incumbent and is back in his district briefly before he takes the oath of office. "I'm not old enough to vote for you,'' Ryan Rubin, a 17-year-old Foothill High School student, told McNerney at a fundraiser Friday night in Pleasanton, "but I'll be old enough to vote for you in two years." McNerney, who won by six percentage points, wants to hold on to his margin. But Rubin's remarks, made in a short receiving-line conversation, also served as a reminder of the pressure he'll face as a U.S. representative. Election comes around every two years, and right after you win one, you have to start running again. There already are stirrings of Republicans, whose party holds a voter registration advantage in the district, gearing up to take on McNerney in the next round.

McNerney is well aware of the challenge, and made reference to it when he spoke to the 100 or so people who showed up at the fundraiser and holiday party he hosted at a senior center to help pay off his campaign debt of about $75,000. "The only way I can thank you,'' he told the roomful of people, many of whom volunteered on his campaign, "is to do the best I can over the next two years and hope you'll support me in 2008." The crowd erupted in cheers. It was a sweet moment for McNerney, a mathematician by training and wind energy consultant by trade, who upset seven-term Rep. Richard Pombo of Tracy to win the 11th Congressional District, which cuts across parts of Alameda, San Joaquin, Contra Costa and Santa Clara counties. McNerney won with 53 percent of the vote. When the two faced off in 2004, Pombo crushed McNerney, taking 61 percent of the vote. McNerney, who campaigned on a platform opposing the Bush administration's Iraq war policy, benefited this time around from the anti-incumbent mood that swept the nation and cost Republicans control of the House and the Senate. Those at Friday's event were still savoring the victory.

"With him beating Pombo, I felt like I was born again,'' said Yev Philipovitch, a 68-year-old civil engineer and Social Security recipient from Pleasanton who is registered to vote as an independent. "I think Pombo was a shining star of corruption and the Bush administration, and I'm glad he's gone.'' Democrat Gloria Green, a 71-year-old retired teacher who also lives in Pleasanton, said she worked for McNerney "almost every day of the week'' stuffing envelopes, collating campaign material, working the phones and performing other tasks that form the backbone of most campaigns. McNerney first appealed to her because she disliked Pombo, particularly his environmental record. Pombo, chair of the House Resources Committee, favored opening the nation's coastal waters and the Alaskan wilderness to oil exploration and pushed to give property owners more rights under federal environmental regulation. Green said she likes McNerney's support of clean-energy initiatives. And she hopes the new Democratic majority will steer the House back toward constitutional oversight. Joan Wetherell, a 60-year-old attorney, implored McNerney to do just that. "Jump in with both feet,'' she told him when she got to the front of the receiving line. Wetherell, who lives in Alamo, just outside McNerney's district, volunteered for his campaign and donated to it. And she's a Republican. What attracted her to McNerney, she said, was his support of ethics reform and what she sees as his honesty and integrity. "I thought it was just me, but everyone's saying it's 'Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.' "

The 110th Congress will be sworn in Jan. 4.

Wearing gray slacks, a blue shirt, blue blazer and green tie festooned with reindeer, McNerney, 55, took his time chatting with well-wishers. He is not a man of booming voice, nor does he slap backs; he mostly stood with his hands clasped behind his back and spoke softly. His growing ease at small talk, however, was evident. Cathy Ott, the postmaster of Danville, like Pleasanton in the western reaches of McNerney's district, showed up to introduce herself. An old roommate of McNerney's from West Point who was in the area on business stopped by to offer his congratulations. Others wanted to talk to the congressman-elect about energy policy, health care, education and transportation; he was assigned to the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. McNerney's wife, Mary, chatted with the people waiting in line to shake her husband's hand. She doesn't plan to move to Washington with him, but instead to stay home and serve as "his eyes and ears'' while he's east.

McNerney returned to the Bay Area on Thursday after spending three weeks in Washington for what amounted to basic training for new House members. He also had to find housing in Washington and start assembling his congressional staff. One of the highlights of his first taste of his new life, he said, was the "real pleasure'' he had voting for Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco, to be the first female speaker of the House.

"People are ready for something better,'' he told the crowd. "And gosh, they're going to get it.''

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/12/17/MCNERNEY.TMP