29 February 2008

Challenger for Mike Thompson Weighs In: Mitch Clogg for Congress

 

"Mike Thompson's a servant of the First District's wine and real-estate bosses. As a member of congress's Blue Dog Coalition, he's a self-proclaimed conservative, and he's insensitive to the needs of regular people. He's against universal health care, he keeps voting to spend more billions to continue the tragedy in Iraq, and he has no plan to help people who have lost or are losing their homes in this mortgage crisis. This district is rich in resources, but it's strapped for cash.
   "You might not notice that where he lives, in St. Helena. That's a fabulously wealthy community, smack in the middle of wine country. Mike's a millionaire who's out of step with the majority of his constituents. It's time for him to retire."

This is the opening statement of Mitch Clogg, Democrat of Mendocino County, who is challenging Thompson for the job of serving in congress for the First District, which stretches from the Oregon border above Crescent City to the western edge of Sacramento and the shore of San Francisco Bay.

Thompson, in congress since 1998, reported over $1 million in 2007 campaign contributions and is expected to declare his candidacy for a sixth term. The moment of truth for the two men will be the June 3 statewide primary election, in which Clogg will face off with his fellow Democrat for the right to represent the party in November's general election.

A veteran of the Army's 101st Airborne Division, Clogg has held positions in state and Mendocino County government. He is a graduate of U.C. Berkeley, and his résumé also includes a wide range of jobs in the private sector, with journalism leading. His self-designation at his candidate's swearing-in last Friday was "public servant/journalist." He has worked as a reporter for several newspapers and radio stations and done extensive freelance reporting. He has also been a member of construction and longshoreman unions.

"White collar or blue collar, the work that has always taken my attention has been work that's done some good for people. My newspaper work has usually been investigative work, in support of people who are being used or abused by bosses or police or government—the people who get the short end of the stick."

Clogg's web site, mitchcloggforcongress.com, details some of his occupations. He won the acclamation of Green-Party activists in his work against oil-industry plans to drill off the North Coast.

"This is the biggest stretch of wild coast in the lower forty-eight states, right here in the First District," he says. "It's a place to stand in absolute awe at Nature's handiwork. Making a buck off of it is a distant second, or out of the running altogether, if it's going to spoil what we've got here. It was stormy this past weekend, and people were out in the wind and the rain, like kids again, in front of that huge, riled-up ocean. Talk about your special effects! The waves slam against the headlands with a power you can't imagine.

"All around the world they're planning to harness it for energy production. This congressional district should be in the lead of that, but we're not even in the running so far. What's Mike Thompson doing? He should be pushing complete energy independence for this district. We can put people to work and unhook ourselves from oil at the same time. Our wine industry's a treasure, but what's more important than energy independence and job security? The coast has been hammered with collapses in its major industries, fishing and forestry. This has happened on Mike's watch. If you're going to stand for a place like this in congress, you need the excited support of your people and you need vision. Then you're as unstoppable as those storm surges we were watching this weekend. Thompson doesn't have either."

The candidate calls for ending the occupation of Iraq: "It went from a lie to a crime to an unprecedented tragedy, for them and for us. Bush and Cheney, for starters, should be in jail. Every moment we're there takes a terrible toll in blood and a material loss that has destroyed their economy and is wrecking ours. This debate about how and when to quit is an excuse for Halliburton and Blackwater to keep making a fortune from mayhem and hard-earned money of taxpayers that had nothing to do with that mess except the sacrifice of their sons and daughters. There's no real debate, only a phony one. The way to stop doing a thing is to stop, period. The people of Iraq can't begin to normalize until we get out of their face and out of their house."

Clogg faults politicians everywhere for making a political "non-issue" from the presence of Hispanic workers: "We had a perfectly workable system. It was called Section 245(i) in our immigration code. It called for undocumented people to pay a fine and then apply for a green card. The government actually made money under that law from fines, and we legalized workers without terrorizing them and ripping their families apart. Reinstate the law: problem solved."

Likewise, he says the healthcare question is one that doesn't need "an upheaval" to find a solution. "I was cured of potentially deadly throat cancer by the VA health service. People confuse them with the flap about Walter Reed Hospital. That's the Army's main hospital. The VA is a complete national system, not one sub-standard hospital. Walter Reed is a mess. The VA is a miracle. Our leading public-health experts and the AMA are on record as saying that's the system for everybody. So do I. Mike's not for it because medical insurance companies donate to his campaign. I don't give a fig for medical insurance companies."

Clogg's web site tells that he raised his three children as a single dad, from when they were two months, two years and four years old. He himself was orphaned at age sixteen when his parents, brother and sister drowned in a boating mishap.