Republicans around the country are under seige by Democrats as the party of Hillary Clinton strives to install Nancy Pelosi as Speaker of the House of Representatives. In California, there are three districts where Democrats are trying to pick up seats, one of them is the East Bay/Central Valley seat held by FR friend Richard Pombo. Pombo is a target by left wing groups from the east coast for his strong convictions in favor of a limited federal government in Washngton, D.C.
Democrat Jerry McNerney’s credibility dropped another couple of notches today when the influential Roll Call newspaper demanded that his campaign stop using the Roll Call masthead 
and a made-up headline attacking opponent Richard Pombo.
In a sharply worded letter to the McNerney campaign, Roll Call Deputy Editor Lou Jacobson says “Because of the misleading nature of this ad — and of any similar ads — we demand that the McNerney campaign stop airing or mailing any ads with this text.” Jacobson noted that the paper had previously contacted the McNerney campaign about the abuse, but to no avail. Today, McNerney began airing a new television spot alleging that Roll Call had called Pombo corrupt.
The Pombo campaign has put the stations on notice that if the spots are not immediately pulled down – and given the Roll Call letter, it seems likely they will be – the campaign will seek relief from the courts.
"You can’t make up a phony headline and then paste it under someone’s masthead and expect stations to air that,” said Pombo spokesman Brian Kennedy. “It is a blatant pre-meditated lie, and given the Roll Call statement that they advised McNerney as early as Monday to refrain from further use of the fabricated headline, I don’t think there is any question the ads must come down.”
Jerry McNerney and friends’ 18 month-long, multi-million dollar campaign to tar Richard Pombo with the “culture of corruption” has fallen on hard times in the 11th Congressional District, where the local press investigated McNerney’s allegations and came up empty. Pombo received his fifth and final in-district endorsement yesterday. Pombo got ’em all:
Four other local newspapers have looked into McNerney’s allegations, and came to the same conclusion: they’re shallow, baseless, and devoid of any factual evidence.
The Stockton Record thoroughly investigated McNerney’s accusations of corruptions:
But the Record’s investigation of hundreds of heavily redacted e-mails, billing records, lobbying and campaign finance reports, published reports and more than a dozen interviews with Beltway…. no evidence suggests that Pombo received Abramoff-funded trips, gifts… or free meals at the lobbyist’s Signatures restaurant.
The Stockton Record’s findings also matched the report of the Contra Costa Times, another major newspaper in the 11th District of California. After a lengthy and open and open inquiry into McNerney’s accusations of corruption, the paper concluded:
The Lodi News Sentinel not only endorsed Richard Pombo for Congress, they deemed McNerney a "political newbie" who would, in their view, "be a relatively ineffectual member of Congress:
We are endorsing Richard Pombo for Congress. Pombo is bright, amiable, and adheres to conservative values. He is against higher taxes and he has worked diligently on behalf of veterans.
And the kicker… McNerney’s own hometown paper, the Tri-Valley Herald of Pleasanton, slammed his character assassinations and ENDORSED Pombo’s reelection, declaring that:
He is the best candidate in this race to represent the people in his district…. His opponents have tried to paint a picture of corruption around Pombo, but the evidence has been weak or completely lacking. The Congressman has been able to defend himself against all charges, including the supposed link to Abramoff, in a calm, reasonable manner, making his critics appear shrill and overly partisan.