Tom Mcclintock

Forced from the state Legislature later this year by term limits, Republican state Sen. Tom McClintock announced his candidacy Tuesday for a Northern California congressional seat hundreds of miles from the Southland district he now represents. Four unsuccessful campaigns for statewide office, including a 2003 run for governor, have made McClintock a hero to many California conservatives.

State Sen. Tom McClintock, a fierce critic of government spending, has accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars in tax-free per diem payments from the state that are meant to help legislators who, unlike McClintock, live far from the capital. The Republican lawmaker said he is entitled to the $170-a-day payments because his legal residence is a family home in his Senate district of Thousand Oaks, where he is registered to vote.

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.

California's best-known conservative, Sen. Tom McClintock, tried to unite its fractured Republican Party behind Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's reelection on Saturday, urging GOP loyalists to set aside qualms about his vast spending plans and envision the fiscal wreckage a Democrat could inflict on the state.

The 2006 political season may be creating some California history: a governor and lieutenant governor candidate running for election as a team. Not just a team in name -- the Republican ticket -- but in actual operation: coordinated messages, ads and schedules, including joint campaigning in conservative areas. The governor and lieutenant governor are elected separately in California.

It's no secret that state Sen. Tom McClintock and California Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi believe their rightful title should be governor. But they would be content to have it cluttered with "lieutenant" for at least the next four years. Garamendi, a Sacramento-area Democrat, and McClintock, a Republican from Thousand Oaks, are running for lieutenant governor on the Nov. 7 ballot, in what might be the statewide election's closest race.

Tom McClintock tells an old joke that California's lieutenant governor pretty much has the day free after determining that the governor is still breathing. But that doesn't mean that McClintock wouldn't love the job. The Republican state senator from Thousand Oaks is running for lieutenant governor against John Garamendi, the Democratic state insurance commissioner.

These guys should be running for governor: Democratic Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi and Republican state Sen. Tom McClintock. They'd make the race a lot more interesting -- less predictable, much closer, more focused, offering a clearer choice of views and visions. Instead, they're competing for the backup job, lieutenant governor. That's a job that shouldn't even exist.

Re "Governor widens rift with GOP," Feb. 21 I'm not one to say, "I told you so," but the Governator was never a conservative Republican. During his successful run for governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger pounded on the fiscal conservative theme because that was the yellow brick road to Sacramento, given former Gov. Gray Davis' abysmal performance in handling California's economy. But Schwarzenegger was always a fiscal softy in conservative clothing. That's why I voted for Tom McClintock.

A veteran lawmaker who gained statewide prominence by running for governor two years ago brought his 2006 campaign for lieutenant governor to Orange County on Saturday, becoming the first Republican to announce his candidacy. State Sen. Tom McClintock of Thousand Oaks is seen as a hero by many conservatives for his austere approach to tackling California's record debt. Gov.