The Northeast corner of California, from just outside of Sacramento all the way up to Modoc County, is currently spoken for in the House of Representatives by Republican Tom McClintock… but can it really be said that McClintock represents the 4th congressional district?

McClintock supports extremist ideological legislation, like H.R. 97, which acknowledges that several substances act as dangerous greenhouse gases, but then proposes that nothing be done about the problem. McClintock has voted for H.R. 471, which takes money away from the public schools that 4th district communities depend upon. McClintock has voted for wasteful government spending on the V-22 Osprey program, as well as other redundant and dysfunctional weapons systems. He’s voted to slash science spending while keeping the expensive and unsuccessful decade-long war in Afghanistan going on and on.

No, Tom McClintock is not representative of the 4th congressional district of California. Yet, the California Democratic Party has yet to bother itself with recruiting a candidate to stand up to McClintock’s out of touch record in Congress.

Where the Democrats are silent, Ben Emery is willing to speak out. Emery is running against McClintock in 2012 as the Green Party candidate.

Why support Emery? Emery is proud to note that he works in the 4th district itself, and as a working American, rather than someone who lives off of investments, he’s in touch with the real consequences of the economic irresponsibility of Washington D.C. politicians like McClintock.

Emery also emphasizes the corporate nature of the problem that McClintock represents, writing, “We’ve allowed big corporations to take over our government. We no longer have representatives of the people because the people do not control our elections. The solution to the root cause of our problems lies in major campaign reform. Taking the power back form big business to force our representatives to form legislation that benefits American citizens before multinational corporations.”

Tom McClintock has taken a quarter of a million dollars from the real estate industry, in a time when one third of the houses on the market are in foreclosure. That questionable source of McClintock’s campaign finance, even taken alone, suggests that Ben Emery’s critique may be right on the money.