Congressional races in Northern California are 'on the line'
Competitive campaigns for the 4th and 11th Districts are receiving special attention from national and state party leaders.
EL DORADO HILLS, CALIF. — Having come up short in campaigns for governor, lieutenant governor, state controller and Congress, Republican state Sen. Tom McClintock is making another run at higher office, prospecting for votes for a congressional seat here in Gold Country, hundreds of miles from his Ventura County-based legislative district.
McClintock's contest with Democrat and Air Force veteran Charlie Brown in a Northern California district is one of two federal races in the state receiving special attention from national and state party leaders. The other is just down the freeway, where freshman Rep. Jerry McNerney, a Democrat from Pleasanton, is facing a tough challenge from Republican Dean Andal of Stockton.
"They are the only two races that we feel are on the line," said Tony Quinn, a GOP researcher and co-editor of the California Target Book, which analyzes congressional races. "They are competitive. These are the two seats that could switch parties."
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has set aside more than $2 million for the two contests, and the National Republican Congressional Committee has called the campaigns the two "races to watch" in California. A committee spokesman declined to say how much the GOP is spending.
After 22 years representing an area of Southern California in the state Legislature, the last eight in the Senate, McClintock, 52, jumped at the chance to run in a heavily Republican district with no incumbent candidate. Rep. John T. Doolittle (R-Roseville) is retiring amid an FBI investigation into his ties to convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff.
The seat represents the 4th Congressional District, which is 47% Republican, 31% Democratic and 18% decline-to-state, but Brown is unfazed.
A former Republican who feels "the Republican Party left me," Brown came within three percentage points of unseating Doolittle in 2006, and he has been competitive with McClintock in fundraising.
McClintock has reported raising more than $1.6 million so far, Brown $1.3 million.
Brown, 58, lives in Roseville, where he has worked on the staff of the Police Department. He said his career, which included flying rescue helicopters in the Air Force before he retired as a lieutenant colonel, gives him valuable experience in an age of terrorism.
Brown opposed the invasion of Iraq and supports pulling the U.S. military out of that country in two years. McClintock supported the invasion.
