Revolting

Porky Stables

On June 17, residents of the 18th congressional district of California were informed by McClatchy Chain local outlets that a new star was rising in the world of horse racing, Rep. Dennis Cardoza, Pimlico Kid-Merced.

The owner of what is known in his district as Porky Stables has long been known as an addicted gambler and recently reported $1,500 in winnings from online bookie services and tens of thousands in winnings from his horses.

Meanwhile, thanks to policies promoted by the Pimlico Kid both in the state Legislature and now in Congress, his district sports the three leading foreclosure-rate capitals of the United States -- Stockton, Modesto and Merced. The latest official unemployment figures for San Joaquin, Stanislaus and Merced counties are 17.7, 18.3 and 19.9 percent. Double that to find the real unemployment figures. Real unemployment is above 90 percent in some of the outlying farm labor-depot towns in this district.

Political corruption in this region has a nauseating momentum designed to produce a feeling of such disgust and helplessness in the political constituency that, if they both to stay registered to vote at all, they tend to turn political problems over to the Lord and vote like their pastor tells them to -- a straight corporate, anti-government ticket. Churches, politicians and the media gloss over the fact that without extensive, frankly socialistic public works projects, especially in water development, this agricultural "cornucopia" would return to what it naturally was, a desert with less than 10 inches of rainfall a year. Yet, the moment any disruption in the even flow of water-from-elsewhere occurs, the Ag Babble Machine is engaged, and legions of over-stuffed representatives of corporate farms are dispatched to Washington to recite the sacred text of the Churcha Perpetual Agribusiness Crisis: "This water is our water." Affirmation of the miracle with perfect faith. The priests hold high the goblets and the Public Trust is transformed into private property. Cardoza knows all about this mystery and is a true believer. This is what passes for leadership these days in the San Joaquin Valley.

Of course one has to be such a deep conservative that he believes in democracy and actually remembers occurrences of it to see the immense fraud -- the incessant government subsidization of agriculture met by the incessant cry for lower taxes, less government involvement and no environmental regulation by the beneficiaries of the subsidies. Above all, when one rubs shoulders with these sacred cows, totally helpless without the government they self-righteously condemn with their mouths with their hands out, one finds leaders who are so arrogant, so corrupt, and so stupefied by the sheer amount of the loot stolen from the taxpayer, the homeowner and the worker, that they forget all about law, decent custom and certainly have absolutely no sense of anything as civilized as political good taste.

Which brings us to the subject of the political career of Dennis Cardoza, the Pimlico Kid. During the height of the speculative housing boom in these three counties in the northern San Joaquin Valley, the area roughly between the San Joaquin Delta and the dry riverbed of the San Joaquin River, residents in this congressional district took to calling him the "rear-end of the Pomboza." The Pomboza stood for a partnership Cardoza had developed with then Rep. Richard Pombo, R-Tracy, at the time the chair of the House Resources Committee. The porky young couple of upwardly mobile Azorean-Americans were seen everywhere together, arm and arm, memorably in three attempts to gut the Endangered Species Act, particularly provisions in it unpopular among the handful of real estate developers who sponsored the charming couple. Like a pair of debutantes after a ball, they were once caught exiting a "bipartisan" fundraiser hosted by the most prominent developers in the region, splitting cash. Cardoza at the time called for more bipartisan efforts like the lucrative soiree. Being a Blue Dog Democrat in a Republican dominated House, we could see his drift.

Tragedy struck the romance in 2006 when Pombo was defeated; the House was taken over by Democrats led by -- quel horreur -- Nancy Pelosi of San Francisco, and Blue Dogs that had been kissing Republican ass since 1995 were suddenly getting their asses kicked from the left side. Not that anybody went to the hospital or anything, and Cardoza joined in the dogfight against his own nominal party, lost his seat on the renamed House Natural Resources Committee because it was no longer popular to be among the worst enemies of environmental law in Congress. The man his district knew as “Shrimp Slayer” for his declared war against the federally listed fairy shrimp that inhabit the greatest concentration of seasonal pools and wetlands in the US, at this point began to meddle in west side water issues, representing three tributary rivers – the Merced, Tuolumne and Stanislaus – and the half-dozen irrigation districts dependent on them.

As a major player in the state Legislature behind the siting and construction of UC Merced, Cardoza, family, friends, associates, cronies as well as some UC regents, benefitted from land speculation. They weren’t alone, but anyone who owned land – and Cardoza’s family owned some parcels – benefitted from the rapidly rising real estate values when the campus, allegedly a “high-tech, bio-tech engine of growth” turned out to be simply an anchor tenant for reckless real estate speculation that has left half-built subdivisions with many empty, foreclosed upon houses lying all over the county. Yet, in a stunning example of bloated arrogance, when First Lady Michelle Obama accepted an invitation to speak at an early UC Merced commencement, Cardoza didn't join other dignities on the sweltering stage. On top of that, he lied to the press about his failure to attend (family and personal matters). A few weeks later it was discovered he was at Pimlico Racetrack for the running of the Preakness at a Blue Dog/lobbyist fundraiser... That's when we began to call him the Pimlico Kid, little knowing at the time that he was buying what sounds like a string of mid-priced claiming horses. The McClatchy local outlet refers vaguely "tens of thousands of dollars" the Kid has allegedly won off his pony string. No mention is made of how much it is taking our Pimlico Kid to buy, stable, feed and train his string. We don’t even know where Porky Stables is located. In Kentucky perhaps?

Cardoza has traded the speculative housing boom for the speculative horsing. As long as it’s gambling, he’s into it.

It was around that time that we also learned that he and his wife, Dr. Kathleen McLoughlin, had moved to Annapolis MD from their lovely home near Merced, festooned with solar panels (apparently a pre-pony interest of the Kid). We thought this was strange because the Kid is such a staunch promoter for a medical school at UC Merced. He never fails to intone sanctimoniously that the Valley has a critical shortage of physicians. Actually, we're not sure that's true but evidently the Cardozas didn't let it stop them from moving to Maryland and stop Dr. McLoughlin from accepting a position in a U. of Maryland medical program as the foreclosure and unemployment rates in his district skyrocketed – with one less doctor. Curiously, with all his concern and intimate knowledge of medicine, the Kid refused to hold one public meeting with constituents about health insurance reform and kept larding drafts of the bill with earmarks for a UC Merced medical school.

The foreclosure and unemployment rates hold steady at depression levels as the months and years wear on here in the Crooked 18^th. Presumably, the Kid’s idea of leadership in the business and political community is to invest in race horses. “Follow me. Together we will gamble recklessly out of the recession.” 

In living memory people got real concerned when a politician got deeply involved in gambling. They felt like he might throw a close vote or something due to influence from organized crime interests. But those were the days when crooked politicians were punished, not rewarded with race horses.

We checked in with one of his district offices this week to find out if we could place a bet there. This question was met with well-tempered denial. When we asked we could then make a bet through the congressman’s office in Washington DC, unpleasant noises were heard. When we asked if at least the district office could refer us to the congressman’s local bookie, we were met with frosty silence.

The Kid's opponent this year is a Republican from a well known local political family. He has two cousins currently serving in the state Legislature and an uncle who served in both houses of the Legislature. If Mike Berryhill doesn't call for a full audit of the Kid's finances, we will know just how deep the fix is in this race. The top hogs at the public trough in this district may be very happy with the owner of Porky Stables.

This morning several constituents of "The Crooked 18th," which previously elected House greats like Gary Condit and Tony "Honest Graft" Coelho, designed a mailer for Berryhill. There would be a string of racehorses with dollar signs on their blankets across the top, foreclosed houses in the middle, and lines of the unemployed at the bottom. Superimposed over all would be the giant fat face of Dennis Cardoza, the hog who represents the top hogs at the public trough in his district, and nobody else. But these top hogs in finance, insurance, real estate and agribusiness have a problem. This guy is a compulsive gambler. He wants to lose. Only ruin with satisfy his passion, which dominates his better-than-average intelligence. Here in the Crooked 18th, we are often bemused by political situations and decisions because we cannot tell which element predominated: corruption or incompetence. Frequently, it is a seamless web of the two. The Kid isn’t stupid, however. With him, it's all corruption. He has worked hard and shrewdly to get where he is. But where is he? In a planet of his own making, where politics = corruption... The vast majority of people in the Crooked 18^th are suffering a great deal of economic pain. And this jackass moves to Maryland and buys racehorses.

Racehorses… He represents one of the great centers of cow horse and cutting horse breeding and training in the nation and he goes for racehorses. The Pimlico Kid couldn't buy some cutting horses and put a good rider on them and win money in those regional contests? It’s true that in jeans and boots, the Kid looks like a pig in lipstick. But for all of that, if he'd bought into one of the more viable, sustainable local industries -- livestock -- people would have respected and appreciated him for having spent local and supported the region's contributions to equine sports.

But what kind of taste can you expect from a man who started his brief, unsuccessful career in business managing a bowling alley that featured lady mud wrestling? It would be easier to forgive him for that if he hadn’t run into the ground the only joint in town with a decent dance floor.

Somehow, we can’t find the right words to describe Cardoza’s bad taste, insensitivity, laziness, cowardice and corruption. A member of the editorial board summed it up in one word:  “Revolting.”