"Congressman, coffee and chat": McNerney meets Manteca residents on Main Street

Congressman Jerry McNerney took his "Congress At Your Corner" tour to the Main Street Cafe in Manteca on Saturday and the Tri-Valley Herald and Manteca Bulletin were there.

This unique opportunity to talk with a member of Congress was a big hit with local residents, as Mike Martinez of the Herald discovered:

MANTECA — For many, it was the first time they had ever met a member of the U.S. Congress.

U.S. Rep. Jerry McNerney, D-Pleasanton, hopes it won't be the last.

As part of an ongoing "Congress at Your Corner" program, the freshman congressman was at the Main Street Cafe in Manteca on Saturday morning, talking with everyone who approached him.

Topics of conversation from the weekday morning-sized crowd ranged from litter on freeways to levees and from job creation to the war in Iraq, and McNerney didn't appear to mind.

"I want to hear the constituents' concerns," McNerney said. "Sometimes they feel intimidated by going to a congressional office. This gives them a chance to come to me with their concerns in an ordinary setting."

You can read the rest of the Herald article here.

Manteca City Councilman John Harris visited McNerney at the Main Street Cafe as well, as Dennis Wyatt of the Manteca Bulletin reported:

Harris dropped by to show McNerney a book — which the congressman indicated he already had — concerning the Great Valley Center’s outlook on challenges in dealing with growth in the coming decades.

Harris also wanted to share a bit of Manteca history with McNerney.

He had a news clipping from the 1950’s about another Democrat who knocked off what everyone thought was an entrenched eight-term Republican congressman. The upstart Democrat? Manteca native son and former mayor, the late John McFall.

McNerney knocked off eight-term incumbent Republican Richard Pombo in the November election.

“History does repeat itself,” Harris said. “He’s a lot like John McFall was as well. McNerney can walk into a room and be comfortable talking with people and be genuinely interested as well, just like McFall could.”

You can read the rest of the Manteca Bulletin article here.

Stay tuned for more Congress At Your Corner events in the coming weeks...

Comments

[Lynne Dennis]

What a wonderful idea -- talking to constituents on their own turf. Makes you wonder why all Congresspeople don't do this. But Jerry, are you flying home every weekend? That must be exhausting.

[Floyd Cranmore]

Seemingly a bit off topic, but its inherently related:
Arnold wants Calif. Democrats to cut a deal and give up on Redistricting here, where they hold an edge. But Arnold is working for the RNC on this one.
Republicans hold an edge, in Texas and elsewhere on Redistricting, and they are NOT about to give that edge up, much less for "free".
Republicans figure that if they can dupe Calif. democrats into letting the Republicans keep their edge everywhere else, and yet they get a freebie "draw" in California, they WIN and can regain control of Congress for the forseeable future. Just do the simple numbers on that one.
So PLEASE talk to the State Dems, and explain to them that they need to tell Arnold to tak a hike, and only cut a deal on Redistricting at the National level, amongst States, or none at all.
So, if Republicans in places like Texas are really interested in Redistricting and are willing to go to neutral Redistricting, then we in California will reciprocate. BUT if Republicans want to hold a Redistricting advantage everywhere else, plus get a "freebie" draw in Calif., without any reciprocation, they can take a hike.
So PLEASE ask national level Republicans to "put their money where their mouth is" and agree to a constitutional amendment, or at least a federal statute, on nationwide neutral redistricting, and not at the state level, where Republicans plan to pick on Dem. states one by one.
Floyd