FRESNO, Calif. (AP) — Pete McCloskey — a pro-environment, anti-war California Republican who co-wrote the Endangered Species Act and co-founded Earth Day — has died. He was 96.
Pete McCloskey — a pro-environment, anti-war California Republican who co-wrote the Endangered Species Act and co-founded Earth Day — has died. He was 96.
A fourth-generation Republican „in the mold of Teddy Roosevelt,“ he often said, McCloskey represented the 12th Congressional District for 15 years, running for president against an incumbent Richard Nixon in 1972. He battled party leaders while serving seven terms in Congress and went on to publicly disavow the GOP in his later years.
He died at home Wednesday, according to Lee Houskeeper, a family friend.
Years after leaving Washington, McCloskey made one last bid for elective office in 2006 when he challenged Richard Pombo of Northern California’s 11th District in a primary race that McCloskey described as „a battle for the soul of the Republican Party.“ After losing to Pombo, who had spent most of his tenure in Washington attempting to undo the Endangered Species Act, he threw his support behind Democrat Jerry McNerney, the eventual winner.
„It was foolish to run against him (Pombo), but we didn’t have anybody else to do it, and I could not stand what a—— they’d become,“ the frank-talking former Marine colonel said of the modern GOP in a 2008 interview with The Associated Press.
McCloskey cited disillusionment from influence peddling and ethics scandals under the George W. Bush administration as reasons why he switched parties in 2007 at the age of 79. „A pox on them and their values,“ he wrote in an open letter explaining the switch to his supporters.
“McCloskey was a rarity in American politics — his actions were guided by his sense of justice, not by political ideology,“ Joe Cotchett, his law partner since 2004, said in a statement. „He hated inequity and did not hesitate to take on members of his own political party.
