So This Is What Pombo Was Doing Last November...

PAC money poured into mayor race
Reports show about $200,000 spent to endorse Tracy pro-growth candidate

"In the race for Tracy's first new mayor in more than a decade, a Sacramento-based political action committee poured in more money than both candidates spent running for the city office.

Not only has the amount of money spent raised some eyebrows, but so have some irregularities on the documents filed with the city Jan. 29.

HAT PAC, which has ties to local developers and former U.S. Rep. Richard Pombo, spent more than $200,000 in October to help Tracy Mayor Brent Ives defeat slow-growth activist Celeste Garamendi, according to campaign finance reports.

Ives, whose own campaign spent about $40,000 on the election, defeated Garamendi by 1,600 votes, slightly more than 10 percent of the ballots cast in a race that brought the city's polarized viewpoints on growth to the surface.

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The committee spent the bulk of their money on mass mailers sent to voters' homes. It also ran television ads on cable channels CNN, Fox News and MSNBC, according to the finance reports." (source)