Media Endorsements In The Buck McKeon-Lee Rogers Race (CA-25)

Like most incumbents, McKeon has the local media pretty much in his back pocket. Every year the district's biggest newspaper, the Santa Clarita Valley Signal, run by one of his friends, mumbles about how they plan to force him to be a better congressman and then gives him a shallow, tepid endorsement.

We support McKeon, but we want to see real solutions coming from him concerning Cemex-- without any political strings attached... We want him to return to being more of a Santa Clarita guy rather than a Washington guy. If our congressman is unwilling to do this, we believe he should consider retirement after this term.

And from the same pathetic spirit that gave McKeon The Signal's 2006 endorsement:

Where McKeon has failed us miserably is on the local front.

Buck McKeon doesn't seem to understand that we need him to champion the issues that are important to the people here at home. He doesn't seem to grasp the notion that we expect him be a leader, not just a mouthpiece for the Bush White House.

Yes, of course we want him to vote the right way on the floor of Congress. A trained ape can do that. But we must have more. Santa Clarita is in trouble. Our community needs the kind of help that only a congressman can provide-- and we aren't getting it.

In 2008, we will become Southern California's gravel pit. In 2008, the multinational giant Cemex will take a little quarry in Soledad Canyon that has produced concrete aggregates since the 1930s for the roads we drive on and the homes we live in, and transform it into a wasteland. Cemex will clog our freeways with giant trucks, pollute the air our children breathe and threaten our water supply in order to provide cement products for the Western United States-- unless the politicians in Washington stop it.

We discussed the issue with McKeon last week when he met with The Signal's editorial board. As Signal readers know, McKeon introduced a bill that would cancel the Cemex mining leases in exchange for mining allowances elsewhere.

That's what the bill says. What has McKeon done to push it through?

Exactly nothing.

He hasn't lifted a finger.

Oh, yes, he "facilitated meetings" among the city of Santa Clarita, the Bureau of Land Management and Cemex's U.S. president, Gilberto Perez. But when Perez and the BLM balked, McKeon threw his hands in the air and effectively told the city, "It's up to you."

Thank You, Buck.

Thanks for nothing.

In our meeting, McKeon didn't even really seem to be aware of what Cemex-related bills he had introduced in recent years. What he was sure about was that he never had any expectation that his bill or bills would go anywhere.

How could they, if he never tried?

Buck, here's how it's supposed to work. You introduce a bill, and then you go talk to other members of Congress about it and try to persuade them to support it. It's really quite a simple process.

Maybe you could take a lesson from your young Democratic challenger, Robert Rodriguez. The kid makes one phone call and gets the support of a neighboring congressman who instantly agreed that the Cemex mine is a bad idea.

In a Newsmaker of the Week debate that appears in today's paper, McKeon discussed his plans for the first 100 days of the next congressional session. Cemex didn't make the cut. A trip to India did.

Sorry, Buck, that's the wrong country.

We had high hopes and great expectations when we sent Buck McKeon to Congress 14 years ago. The Democrats had been in control for 40 years, and now, for the first time, Santa Clarita would be sending our own Mr. Smith off to Washington to fight the good fight. Two years later, the Republicans took over, and in the ensuing 12 years, McKeon stuck around long enough to be put in charge of a second-tier congressional committee that sets education and labor policy.

Since 2001, he has been a good soldier for the White House. What has he gotten in return? Not much. When other members of Congress are getting money for bridges to nowhere, McKeon can't even bring home enough money to complete the cross-valley connector. It's as if he hasn't learned how to get any mileage out of his committee chairmanship-- and if the House goes Democrat on Tuesday, he won't even have that.

Today, we see little difference between Buck McKeon-- who sends his staffers on defense contractor-paid junkets around the world and takes campaign donations from student-loan companies he is supposed to regulate-- and the entrenched, do-nothing Democrats he was sent to replace in 1992.

When he first ran for office, Buck McKeon pledged to serve no more than 10 years. He said it during a debate with a "Perot candidate" when term limits were all the rage, but we think he truly meant it at the time.

Now, four years after his self-imposed deadline, we need a new congressman. We need Buck McKeon to be that congressman. We need a re-energized Buck McKeon to go to Washington and fight for us with a renewed sense of civic duty.

In two years, we want to be able to look back and enthusiastically endorse Buck McKeon for Congress.

The big radio station, KHTS, also owned by a McKeon crony, Carl Goldman, has been backing McKeon and this week fired the independent-minded news director, Carol Rock and the Santa Clarita Valley's top political reporter, Mark Archuleta for refusing to go along with his own biased perspective on news coverage. At an October 5 meeting with McKeon's top staffers in McKeon's Santa Clarita office-- during which they whined and complained about DWT-- Goldman promised the station would endorse McKoen (which he did the next day) and shut Rock and Archuleta up. A week later, both Rock and Archuleta were fired.

McKeon's cronies in Santa Clarita are too entwined with McKeon and his sputtering little machine to ever turn against him. They spend their days trying to make his reelection sound inevitable. But yesterday the Antelope Valley Political Observer took a big step and endorsed Lee Rogers against McKeon.

The Republican-owned Political Observer’s decision to endorse a Democrat is a first, and not one taken lightly.

Our decision is based on Rogers’ position on the big issues-- War in Afghanistan, Civil Liberty, NDAA, and his commitment to voting principle and the best interest of the district over voting by instruction as given by the leadership of his political party.

McKeon’s record on these issues is dismal. A representative whose voting history includes supporting TARP because party leadership told him to, NDAA-- indefinite detention of U.S. citizens-- and a continuation of the war in Afghanistan especially, is enough for the Political Observer to recommend readers vote for his opponent, Rogers for Congress.

In a district as large and diverse as the 25th, McKeon’s refusal to participate in more than one forum is disappointing. The People have a right to more.

Having the one debate he did agree to attend held on a weekday at mid-day, and charging $20 admission, reveals a sense of complacency and entitlement, we believe, by Congressman McKeon.

Perhaps McKeon’s 20-year tenure in Congress in a safe-seat has something to do with his dismissive attitude toward constituents who want more candidate forums.

On U.S. involvement in Afghanistan where the sitting vice president supports U.S. troops staying through 2014, and a Republican VP nominee supporting an open-ended commitment, Rogers position is to end U.S. involvement immediately and bring the troops home now.

Or, as Rogers told the Political Observer, “I’m in favor of bringing the troops home form Afghanistan yesterday.”

As for McKeon, it appears he never met a war, overseas military adventure, or weapons system he didn’t like.

With debate over Obamacare all the rage, the 25th District electing Rogers to Congress is sending to Washington D.C. a medical doctor who understands healthcare should be between a doctor and patient, and also recognizes it is the government and the insurance companies who often are the ones getting in the way.

If elected, Rogers will not be a shill for the Democratic Party. He will vote principle and the best interests of his constituents over party leadership’s wishes.

Rogers told the Political Observer, “I am only loyal to the district and my values. No party has a monopoly on good ideas. Whichever idea benefits the district most will be the way I vote. Party loyalty is only for those who want to rise in the party ranks to a leadership position.”

Rogers' refrain about how “I’m in favor of bringing the troops home form Afghanistan yesterday" also won him the endorsement of Peace Action West. Today Peace Action West joined the Blue America effort to raise campaign contributions for Rogers with the help of a Frank Sinatra double platinum award. This is the letter they sent all their members this morning:

Rep. Buck McKeon and his challenger Lee Rogers are like night and day. Buck McKeon is going to the mat to stop cuts to the bloated Pentagon budget. Dr. Lee Rogers wants to cut wasteful military spending so we can spend it on human needs.

Peace Action West is teaming up with our friends at Blue America to give a boost to Lee Rogers in the last critical weeks before Election Day. Donate to Lee Rogers’ campaign and you will be entered to win a rare double platinum award for Frank Sinatra’s The Very Good Years, a collection that features classics like “Night and Day.”

As Chair of the House Armed Services Committee, Buck McKeon has a megaphone to spread fear and lies about the Pentagon budget. He and his committee have been relentless, calling potential cuts “devastating” and drumming up false panic about job losses.

But Lee Rogers recognizes runaway defense spending as a “threat from within” and will fight to bring our troops home and rein in wasteful spending.

  Donate to help Lee Rogers defeat one of the Pentagon's biggest boosters, and you could win a rare piece of American music history.

You can have a chance to get that Sinatra plaque and do something great for the country by jettisoning bigoted, reactionary warmonger Buck McKeon all on the same page. This could be one of the biggest headlines in the country on November 7.