Pete McCloskey to run for congressional seat Pete McCloskey to run for congressional seat (January 25, 2006)

Former congressman Pete McCloskey of Portola Valley and Yolo County, a maverick Republican who represented the MidPeninsula from 1967 to 1983, has announced his candidacy for the 11th Congressional District.

The district is now represented by conservative Republican Richard W. Pombo of Tracy, whom Mr. McCloskey wants to bump from the running in the June primary. Mr. Pombo has been a leading critic of environmental protection laws, including the Environmental Protection Act, which Mr. McCloskey helped write.

Mr. McCloskey and his wife, Helen Hooper McCloskey, who lived for many years in Woodside, have an apartment at The Sequoias retirement community in Portola Valley.

They live much of the time on a ranch in Yolo County, but plan to move 90 miles south to Lodi in order to live in the congressional district he wants to represent, he said in an interview with the Palo Alto Weekly, the Almanac's sister paper.

In a prepared statement, Mr. McCloskey said that he and his wife are moving to Lodi "because we feel that Congressman Pombo, by reason of his voting record and close ties to Indian gaming lobbyist Jack Abramoff and former (House) majority leader Tom DeLay, has become an embarrassment to the Republican Party."

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