Congressman Mike Thompson is looking to return to Congress for another two-year term. Courtesy photo.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Following a term in which there have been major national policy changes enacted in the nation's capital, Lake County's congressman has his eyes on things to come, and is asking to continue his service to the North Coast.
Mike Thompson, 59, is seeking his seventh term in Congress this November.
The Democrat from St. Helena has served in the House of Representatives since 1999. He divides his time between Washington, DC, and California's First Congressional District, which stretches across seven counties, including Lake, Mendocino, Del Norte, Humboldt, and portions of Napa, Sonoma and Yolo counties.
His wife, Jan, is a nurse practitioner. The couple have two sons – one a firefighter, the other a deputy sheriff – and three grandchildren.
During the time he's served in Congress, “My priorities haven't changed at all,” he said, adding that his focus in on, “The district, the district, the district.”
Natural resources, agricultural, fiscal responsibility and health care have all been big issues for the First Congressional District. In Lake County, additional issues are Social Security, heath care and Medicare. Thompson said he'll continue to keep the focus in those areas.
Thompson – a Vietnam veteran – is credited by local officials for his diligence in working to get a local Veterans Affairs clinic opened in the county. He was in Clearlake earlier this month to mark the opening of that facility, which took more than a decade of lobbying to get.
He recently received the endorsement of a number of businesses and organizations in the region, including the Farm Bureaus in Lake and Napa counties, as well as endorsements from numerous regional officials, with local supervisors Anthony Farrington, Jim Comstock, Denise Rushing and Jeff Smith, and Clearlake Mayor Judy Thein among them.
Thompson, a Blue Dog Democrat, is a member of the powerful Ways and Means Committee, an appointment he said he worked hard to get to make sure the district had a voice.
“I'm finally getting some rank on the committee where I'm able to do some good things,” he said.
During his current term, Thompson has been a part of major actions including the health care reform bill.
He said he had a “very heavy hand” in preventative medicine and telemedicine aspects in the House version of the bill. While those didn't make it into the Senate version, they were added into the law's regulations.
Health care reform has a long way to go, both in the roll out of the legislation – currently under way – and what's still needed, he said.
“Whenever you reform anything it's just the beginning,” Thompson explained.
Thompson also wants to see the country get rid of its trade deficit, and reduce its dependence on imported oil.
He remains dedicated to continuing his work on behalf of the wine industry, an economic power in his North Coast district. He said he is keeping his eye on proposed new legislation that would make it tougher for the smaller wineries that dot the North Coast and Lake County to ship wine out of state.
There's also Wall Street reform on the horizon, with President Barack Obama recently appointing Elizabeth Warren as a consumer advocate.
Reacting to the discontent in the local community and across the country, Thompson said, “I understand why folks are mad. Heck, I'm mad.”
During the August break from Congress Thompson held six town halls in the district. During those events, he saw some people who were angry. Many wanted tax cuts and deficit reduction. His question: How can we do both?
While Thompson has been returned to office over the last several years by wide margins, and enjoys a bipartisan popularity across the district, he's nonetheless facing a challenge this year from Republican and Air Force Reservist Loren Hanks, as well as Libertarian Mike Rodrigues and Green Party candidate Carol Wolman.
Hanks has criticized Thompson for being part of what he alleges is Congress' out-of-control spending, and for being involved in legislation – like health care – that he believes is intrusive and beyond the scope of government power. He's also called Thompson “an entrenched incumbent.”
In a message to supporters on the eve of Thompson's Oct. 17 appearance in Napa with President Bill Clinton, Hanks wrote, “District 1 voters know the federal government is too big, it spends too much, and Mike Thompson is an enabler of those epic proportions.”
Hanks also suggested that Clinton's appearance “indicates a fear of the voters' awakening.”
At that same campaign event, Clinton took aim at Hanks for not even living in the First Congressional District.
The Solano County Registrar of Voters Office confirmed to Lake County News that Hanks is registered as an absentee voter there, meaning he can't vote for himself in the upcoming election. But federal rules allow a candidate not to live in the congressional district in which they are seeking office.
As for Hanks' criticisms about spending, “There was a lot of spending that was done and, I would argue, needed to be done to keep us out of a Great Depression,” said Thompson.
He added, “I didn't run for Congress to vote for bailout bills.”
Some spending is needed, said Thompson, due to the country being “woefully behind” in infrastructure.
Democrats, said Thompson, have spent $2 trillion to try to address the country's recession. He laid blame for larges amounts of spending on the Bush administration, pointing out that Clinton left the White House with a balanced budget.
He said President George Bush took the country into a “war of choice” in Iraq. Thompson has opposed that war, while Hanks has supported it.
Thompson went on to point out that the Bush administration pushed for a $2 trillion tax cut and $1 trillion prescription drug bill, neither of which are paid for.
“What he's saying,” Thompson said of Hanks' allegations on spending, “is not even close to reality.”
He also accused Hanks of being “intellectually dishonest” about spending when he's passing out brochures about a tax cut extension that doesn't have a plan to pay for it.
Thompson said you can't spend more money than you have, and that's why he supported the “pay go” legislation.
“Everything we're doing, we're paying for,” Thompson said.
He doesn't believe there will be a massive control shift in Congress such as is being predicted, although he expects seats to be won and lost on both sides of the aisle. Thompson predicted single-digit margins of change in both houses of Congress.
Thompson has once again this year secured a large amount of financial support for his reelection bid.
Campaign finance reports through Oct. 13 made available through www.opensecrets.org show that Thompson has raised approximately $1,749,748, spent $1,531,549 and has $1,330,039 in cash on hand. That overall total is about $167,000 less than he raised in the 2008 election cycle, which was his highest fundraising year to date.
Of the funds Thompson has raised this year, 49 percent, or $859,181, has come from political action committees, while $845,320, or 48 percent, came from individual contributions, with 3 percent or $45,247 reported from “other” sources.
Hanks has raised $83,103, spent $65,992 and has $17,109 in cash on hand, the reports showed. He's had no political action committee contributions, with 93 percent, or $77,520, coming from individual contributions. He's contributed 4 percent, or $3,135, to his campaign, and has received $2,448, or 3 percent of the total, from the “other” category.”
Rodrigues and Wolman both claimed no funds raised in the Oct. 13 report.
More information about the candidates in the race can be found online: www.mikethompsonforcongress.com , www.hanksforcongress.com , www.thegoodmike.com/ and www.carolwolmanforcongress.com .
E-mail Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . Follow Lake County News on Twitter at http://twitter.com/LakeCoNews , on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Lake-County-News/143156775604?ref=mf and on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/user/LakeCoNews .
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