PRESS RELEASE Gill CA09: MCNERNEY’S WATERED-DOWN LEADERSHIP THREATENS DELTA WAY OF LIFE

Ricky Gill (R-CA-9)

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

February 17, 2012

GILL: MCNERNEY’S WATERED-DOWN LEADERSHIP THREATENS DELTA WAY OF LIFE

LODI, CA, February 17, 2012 – With Congress poised to pass a water bill that would supersede California law and run roughshod over local farmers’ water rights, Congressional candidate Ricky Gill today released the following statement on his opponent’s record on water:

Farmers, fishermen, and all residents of the 9th Congressional District are now facing a catastrophic deprivation of water rights due to five years of neglect by Jerry McNerney.

How did it come to this? McNerney protests that this deal was cut “behind closed doors,” but that attitude speaks only to his neglect of this crucial issue. McNerney spent four years in the majority, and during that time he did nothing to prevent this longstanding threat to local water rights from reaching a critical stage.

Sadly, this isn’t the first time McNerney’s neglect has cost local farmers. He received an abysmal 16% rating from the American Farm Bureau Federation. In 2009, he sided with environmentalists, rather than farmers, on the Delta smelt. And he waited nearly five years to denounce the peripheral canal on the House floor, making his opposition known only after he decided to relocate to a new Congressional district centered in the Valley and Delta.

My opponent’s election-year rhetoric cannot make up for five years of neglect. McNerney’s watered-down leadership has taken us to the brink, and we need to make a fresh start before it’s too late for our farmers.

Gill, a Lodi native and family farmer, has been endorsed by more than 20 agriculture leaders from the 9th District.

About Ricky Gill

Ricky Gill is a native of San Joaquin County, born and raised in Lodi, California. The son of immigrant parents, Ricky is a small business owner, a family farmer, and a former member of the California State Board of Education whose story speaks to the power of the American dream. Ricky grew up helping manage his family’s vineyard operation and serving the community as chair of the Greater Lodi Area Youth Commission. He has played an integral role in his family’s small business, which employs 60 people in the San Joaquin Valley, for several years. In 2004, he was appointed by the Governor to the California State Board of Education, where he served as the sole representative of more than six million public school students. He subsequently served as an adviser to the California Secretary of Education. Ricky now serves as a member of the Lodi Boys & Girls Club Board of Directors. A Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Princeton University, he will soon complete his Juris Doctor at the University of California, Berkeley.