Los Angeles Times Profiles Congressman McNerney

[courtesy of The California Majority Report]

In case you missed, the Los Angeles Times on Sunday covered freshman Congressman Jerry McNerney's efforts to win re-election in a tough, Republican leaning Central Valley district. McNerney wasCalifornia's dragon slayer last year, defeating seven term incumbentRichard Pombo, an anti-environment, right wing ideologue moreinterested in gutting clean water laws than getting to know hisconstituents. McNerney has emerged as a thoughtful, earnest andattentive representative who has frantically gotten to know as manyconstituents as possible—and he's going to need it too: McNerney is atop GOP target in 2008 and has already drawn a strong challenge informer Assemblymember Dean Andal.

McNerney has done a particularly fine job of tuning out the backgroundnoise and listening to his district, even it means distancing himselffrom some of the left-wing groups that helped get him elected. And, asthe LA Times points out, he's won a lot of accolades, even fromdied-in-the-wool Pombo fans. We're proud of you, Congressman McNerney.

Photo courtesy of Mother Jones.