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The California 4th AD has been in the hands of Republicans since 1990. Yet, the terming out of longtime legislator Tim Leslie has left a vacancy that Republicans have been working hard to fill.  The region’s GOP politics are dominated by Congressman John Doolittle, whom you may know as a good friend of Super-Lobbyist Jack Abramoff (see here and here). The GOP candidate, Ted Gaines, announced that he was running for the position in 2004, BEFORE Leslie had won his final term.  Pretty Astounding.  Not only that, but Leslie gave his blessing before he was reelected to his final term.  Gaines has also already raised over $400,000.  Littered on his max contributer list are the developers that plan to make this region just a suburb in the foothills in the western part of the district or a series of massive vacation resorts near Tahoe.

Into this race comes Rob Haswell Haswell grew up in the area before moving to the Bay Area. While some may describe the race as a challenge, to put it mildly, Haswell looks at it as an opportunity.  I had the chance to talk to him for a while, and I was impressed with his preparedness for this race.  Frequently underdog candidates will be naïve or nonchalant, not really putting up a fight.  Haswell does not have that fate in mind.  He looks forward to giving the people of the 4th AD a legitimate choice this year.  And perhaps this is the perfect chance for a change in the area’s politics, with Doolittle’s troubles and the overall slump that the GOP is currently experiencing.

Below the fold I have posted his answers to some questions that I sent him.  I will be following this race throughout the election season, so you will be hearing much more about this race at Calitics.  If you would like to contribute to Rob Haswell’s campaign, click here and he’ll get all your information.

Calitics Correspondance with Rob Haswell

1) You’ve lived in Placer county for the majority of your life.  Other than the open seat, what made you decide to run for Assembly now?

First of all, thanks for this opportunity. I am a big fan of the blogosphere and consider it a real legitimate front in the information wars that we are seeing nationwide.
Now as for your question, I was born and raised here in Placer County, but my  wife, Kim, and I only moved back into the area about a year ago. We’d been living in Sunnyvale with our two children, Kennedy, 5, and Martin, 2 for the past several years. Kim is also originally from a small rural community and, after the 2004 election, we really made an effort to get back to a more rural lifestyle, similar to our own upbringings.
During the past few years, we were both very active politically, so when we moved back to Auburn I started researching the political landscape here.  As you know, this is a very conservative leaning district. Placer County itself boasts the highest percentage of registered Republicans of any county in the state. But in my research I noticed two related trends that made me feel I wanted to get into the race and that I could win the race.
Number one, this region is dominated by a political machine, run with an iron fist by John Doolittle. Of this there can be no real dispute. And part and parcel to that machine is the undue influence of big-city developer money, which you see in virtually every single race in these parts, from the partisan races, to supervisor, town council and on down the ladder. This combination has led to a virtual sell off the quality of life in this district. The politics in the region are literally on the verge of turning Placer County into the San Fernando Valley. Having grown up here and wanting to raise my children here, I am horrified at the prospect. So that was the reality I discovered.
But the second fact I happened on was a Placer County supervisorial race that occurred during the 2004 election cycle. Doolittle’s hand-picked candidate spent more than $300,000 on the race — virtually all of it developer money — and outspent her opponent by about 4:1. She lost the race anyway. I believe that race was a canary in the coal mine, so to speak.
In this assembly race, the Republican candidate, Placer County Supervisor Ted Gaines, has been anointed for this position by the powers that be. He has raised over $400,000, the vast majority of which came from these same big-city developers. Given that this is an open seat, which occurs only once every six years, I believe we need to give the voters of this district a real choice in their future. Because it is a future that, in a very real sense, hangs in the balance.

2) Placer County and the 4th AD has been known as a GOP stronghold.  Do you think that this is based upon the “family values” crowd or is there an underlying libertarianism as is common in the American West?

Well, I think there are elements of both. The conservative religious community has a very strong presence here, no question, but there is definitely a libertarian bent to many republicans in the district as well. In fact, there’s a bit of a battle over the “soul of the Republican party” going on here. There are even competing republican organizations in the county. One, the Placer County Republican Assembly is definitely in the “family values” camp. One of their top “principles” is the following: “We believe in the guiding force of moral law as expressed by the Judeo-Christian ethis and contained in the Holy Scriptures of these historic faiths.”
Meanwhile, the other Republican organization is called The Republican Congress of Placer County and, on the “What We Believe” page on their web site, one of their top values is “The Separation of Church and State.” So I think there’s definitely a faction of what I call “Teddy Roosevelt Republicans” who are more conservation minded, who believe in fiscal responsibility, and who believe in government staying out of the private lives of individuals.
I don’t believe the local machinery really represents a lot of those values. We will be tapping into that discontent. Furthermore, one of the fastest growing segments of this district are the “declined to state” voters, who represent about %18 of the electorate. I’d say that is nod to the libertarian bent that you are alluding to.

3) Your opponent in the primary recently dropped out of the race in order to run for a different position.  How do you think this has affected your general election chances?

Well, that’s an interesting question. I was the one who forced the primary when I decided to get into the race last fall. And at the time, and I still believe this, I argued that a primary was a good thing for the disenfranchised party in any particular district. We had an opportunity to have some debates, get some news coverage and raise our visibility, all of which I believe help us in the general election. As long as we didn’t cannibalize each other — which would be absolutely ridiculous to do given the political reality of the district (so much so that I laughed whenever this prospect was brought up to me) — I was excited about a primary. The other democrat, by the way, opted out to run for a seat on the El Dorado County Board of Supervisors that unexpectedly opened up. It’s a very important seat and I support him in that endeavor.
So not having a primary hurts us a bit in terms of visibility. On the flip side, however, we can really tap into the activists in the area now and don’t have to compete for resources and we can work on base building, which will help us when we implement our ground operation this summer. We’ll just have to be a bit more creative getting our name out there. One other note: we have a Libertarian, Green Party, and a last-minute completely unknown Republican candidate in the race, so maybe there’ll be some town hall forums in our future.

4) The favorite for the GOP nomination is very well funded through the traditional GOP fundraisers and the state party.  What can you do to counter this?

Well, again, I think one of the elements of politics that has completely turned people off is the enormous amount of money that is spent in these races. Especially give the current climate of rampant political corruption on the national front. And, furthermore, I believe there is a real distaste in the district for where the money comes from — almost exclusively from large development corporations — and that could work in our favor.
Be that as it may, however, we will have to be creative in getting our name out. One of the benefits of a huge war chest is that if you have a million dollars, you can send out 12 direct full-color mailers and, even though people are generally turned off by that type of politics, they still eventually know your name. It’s very difficult to counter that. It can be done, but what you have to do, and what we’ll be doing, is return to the “old style politics” of walking precincts, holding town halls, visibility rallies, house parties and maybe even a whistle-stop tour.
I’ve been amazed at the amount of individual donations that have been pouring in. Literally, thousands of dollars, most of which have come in the form of donations of $100 or less. We’ll raise the money we need to fund our operation. I’m completely convinced of that.

5) What are your primary strengths that would help represent the people of the 4th AD in the Assembly.

Well, number one, I won’t be a politician whose soul and vote is already bought and paid for before I ever cast a vote or author a piece of legislation. And I’m not joking about this. One of the problems with the legislature in California, and it was one of the sad results of the partisan district maps that have been drawn, is that very few, if any, incumbents fear that they may lose their job if their constituents become unhappy.
In 2002 I don’t believe that a single incumbent lost a race in California. That’s not democracy; that’s a disgrace. Especially when you consider that the legislature has an approval rating that hovers somewhere just below 30 percent. You think with that dismal record, at least one or two incumbents might lose, wouldn’t you? But no.
I will lead the fight for political reform in this state that will bring regular citizens back into the process in a meaningful way. I will fight for publicly financed “clean money” elections, which is an idea whose time has come and I’ll fight for true non-partisan redistricting that is essential if we ever want our politicians to answer to us.
What I’ll be for the citizens of the 4th Assembly District is a public official who will work on their behalf. I will be an independent voice who is not be beholden to the the multi-billion dollar pharmaceutical companies that are holding this state’s health care system hostage, or the big-city developers that have conspired with local elected officials to sell off our quality of life.
In the end, what I am is a citizen activist. And I think that’s what our state legislature needs, rather than another cookie-cutter career politician.