Gentle Readers and Fans of Northern CA: Today, Monday, September 8, 2008, 2 things happened in CA- 04.  Charlie Brown, the Democrat running to replace Republican John Doolittle, the Abramoff- scandal encrusted retiring incumbent, released recent polling data that showed he has a lead over the SoCal Republican imported to the district to replace him. This is great news. http://www.charliebrownforcong…

And a former staffer of John Doolittle, as you may have heard by now, was arrested at his home and indicted, and pled not guilty to many different aspects of bribing and corrupting Congressional Representative Number 5.

This is just really interesting, so we’ll do a little background refresher.

August 4, 2006. Doolittle exits Coco’s Restaurant after an Auburn Dam Council meeting, to find a sea of protestors and media questioning him about the Abramoff scandal.   photo by author

This was a long time coming. Kevin Ring, who has made silence a lifestyle choice when looking at a subpoena,  the one who pleaded the 5th against self incrimination in testimony before the Senate, has now run out the clock.

http://deepbackground.msnbc.ms…

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/hom…

Our New Abramoff Indictee Factsheet:

Who:  Kevin Ring, Rep. John Doolittle’s former legislative director, and former lobbyist

What:   Ring arrested today Mon 9/8/08 at his home in Maryland

          indicted + charged with  10 counts of bribery, obstruction of justice, and conspiracy in federal court in DC.

Reaction Now:  Ring pled not guilty.  

Possible Chain Reaction Later:  If he doesn’t want to go to jail, he may implicate others involved and plea bargain. Given the number of people Ring worked with who are already convicted in the Abramoff scandal, the case against Ring is very serious.  John Doolittle is Ring’s former boss and a known beneficiary of his lobbyist talents. John Doolittle has always claimed in public that Jack Abramoff was a friend, and that he didn’t have to give the money back.  If Doolittle were to be indicted before Bush left office, Bush would pardon him to prevent him from testifying against others.

Where:  Federal Court in DC

When:   3 days after lobbyist Jack Abramoff was sentenced to 4 more years in prison on Sept 5 for bribing government officials.  http://www.washingtonpost.com/…       Because of his cooperation with the Federal government, he received a reduced sentence in exchange for helping to convict 13 other people so far.  Abramoff pled guilty in January of 2006 to fraud and conspiracy charges in regards to his buying SunCruz floating casino ships, and was serving time in jail since then while working with federal prosecutors in the other conspiracy case against him of bribing government officials, in his job as a lobbyist for Greenberg Traurig.

Why  this matters:    Rep. John Doolittle (R, “Chevron”)  is the current  Republican Congressperson in CA- 04.  Doolittle decided not to run for re election in 2008 against Charlie Brown (D, Roseville)  after his polling numbers, campaign donations and influence abruptly nosedived after the FBI raided his Oakton, VA house April 13, 2007, as he was on his way to an Indian Casino in Oroville, CA, to give a speech to the local Oroville Chamber of Commerce.  On that same April 13, his former chief of staff, Kevin Ring, suddenly resigned without warning from the lobbying firm he was employed with.   Kevin Ring helped Julie Doolittle get a job with Jack Abramoff.

http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpoi…     That “job”  paid her $67,000 over 2 years.

What is wrong with having worked for Jack Abramoff? From Think Progress, Abramoff , the House That Jack Built     http://thinkprogress.org/abram…

CAPITAL ATHLETIC FOUNDATION – (JULIE)  DOOLITTLE RAISED FUNDS FOR ABRAMOFF’S BOGUS ORGANIZATION: “You get tired of dinners and receptions. This time we wanted to do a gala event to raise awareness for the Capital Athletic Foundation, and back that awareness up with funds,” said Doolittle in 2003. But, the Capital Athletic Foundation didn’t raise money for children, as it was advertised to do. “[T]ax and spending records of the Capital Athletic Foundation obtained by The Washington Post show that less than 1 percent of its revenue has been spent on sports-related programs for youths. Instead, the documents show that Jack Abramoff…has repeatedly channeled money from corporate clients into the foundation and spent the overwhelming portion of its money on pet projects having little to do with the advertised sportsmanship programs.” [Hollywood Reporter, 3/5/03; (Use the WAPO Link) Washington Post, 9/28/04]

From the Sept 28 2004 WAPO    Foundation’s Funds Diverted From Mission

http://www.washingtonpost.com/…

{{{ The Capital Athletic Foundation’s Web site portrays youths at play: shaking hands over a tennis net, learning how to hold a bat, straining for a jump ball. Its text solicits donations for what it describes as “needy and deserving” sportsmanship programs.

In its first four years of operation, the charity has collected nearly $6 million.    But tax and spending records of the Capital Athletic Foundation obtained by The Washington Post show that less than 1 percent of its revenue has been spent on sports-related programs for youths.

Internal records state, for example, that Abramoff and his wife, Pam — who are listed as the foundation’s sole directors — spent more than 70 percent of its revenue from 2001 to 2003, or $4.03 million, on a Jewish school that Abramoff founded in Columbia. The Eshkol Academy operated for two years and schooled two of his sons before closing this spring with unpaid bills, faculty members said.  }}}

Jack Abramoff also became a lobbyist for 3 Indian Tribes, the Saginaw Chippewa, the Mississippi Choctaw, and the Coushatta of Louisiana.  They donated more than 2 million to the same Capitol Athletic Foundation that Julie Doolittle was fundraising for.  The reason they did that was that the lobbyists and the politicians were playing them off against each other implying the other tribe(s) would get better Casino deals.  But there was something else going on, the politicians were doing money laundering of foreign funds thru these casinos.  There was also a lobbyist named Michael Scanlon doing money laundering thru these donations.

Remember this, and ask, will John Doolittle let Julie take the fall for him?

Julie Doolittle worked for Jack Abramoff.  Abramoff’s in jail.  Kevin Ring helped get her that job. Kevin Ring just got indicted.  All this time, she’s avoided the consequences. So did Ring.  Until Now.

Julie Doolittle also has a “business” called Sierra Dominion Financial Services.  She started it in 2001. That firm did fundraising for John Doolittle’s Superior CA LeadershipPAC.  She took a percentage. Another client was Greenberg Traurig, Jack Abramoff’s company.  Another client of SierraDominion was Abramoff’s restaurant, Signatures.  And the last client was an alleged non profit called the Korea- US Exchange Council. This was run by Tom Delay’s ex chief of staff, Ed Buckham.  (Tom Delay’s wife, Christine, also “worked” for it. ) The Korea- US Exchange was part of Alexander Strategy Group.  Brent Wilkes was a client of Alexander Strategy.  That means he hired and paid them to lobby for his business and bring him government contracts.   These are all the clients Julie Doolittle had.  Her husband. Jack Abramoff. Tom Delay’s ex COS, Buckham.

If you are writing a job resume, this would not look good.  Delay and Doolittle and Abramoff.  It’s like the Bermuda Triangle Trifecta of Tragic Lobbying Associations.  

During the fall 2006 election cycle, when Republican Doolittle, who was being challenged by Democrat Charlie Brown, had to rely on multiple visits from VP Dick Cheney, George, and even Laura Bush to prop up his sagging campaign, Doolittle repeatedly denied being under federal DOJ investigation since 2004, until it was revealed that he was paying legal defense firms thousands of dollars monthly by using his campaign contributions.  Doolittle did this in 2 ways, one, by paying his wife fees as a “fundraiser” and two, by claiming that since he needed legal counsel to give him advice on the campaign trail about answering questions about the investigation, he was entitled to use campaign funds and treat it as a campaign activity. (the advice was, of course, not to answer any questions. This is how law firms prosper).

Local Angle:  Kevin Ring was still a lobbyist for the city of Lincoln, CA, in the summer of 2006, because John Doolittle had recommended him for the job,   http://solongjohn.blogspot.com…                    and was instrumental in obtaining earmarks from John Doolittle for the fastest growing city in the state during the early years of Bush’s “War On Terror.”  (should have been called the War on Your Pocketbook )  John Doolittle gained notoriety during this time for not only telling local CA- 04 towns to “hire a lobbyist” if they wanted to talk to him, and expecting those “talks” to bear donations,  but for having his wife Julie Doolittle collect a  15%   percentage of every campaign donation as a “fundraiser’s fee”  including many from local Real Estate speculators and developers.  Many of these developers are involved in land use mitigation where they try to swap property they want to develop that contains endangered habitat or species for property to be set aside elsewhere, so properties end up being sold several times to different developers trying to get zoning and EIR approval. Zoning…  may be influenced by campaign contributions, as many cities in the district now hire lobbyists to work in the state capitol of Sacramento, as well as in Washington, DC.     Julie runs her “fund- grazing”   under the name of Sierra Dominion Financial Services.   John Doolittle, who said he was going to stop paying Julie   ” 15%”  percent of each donation after the 2006 election, instead continued to do so, according to his FEC financial filings from January 2007 onwards.  This is because he was using that portion of the family “income” to pay a team of white collar criminal defense lawyers for himself and his wife to fight his staff records being subpoenaed by the Dept of Justice.  One of those law firms was Wiley Rein & Fielding.  One of the names in that title is George W Bush’s White House Legal Counsel, Fred Fielding, who replaced Harriet Miers in January 2007. (Fielding left WR&F during this time)   Another of John Doolittle’s defense attornies, David G Barger, specializes in getting settlements between the IRS and clients in tax trouble whereby the client avoids jail time.  Barger worked for Ken Starr in the Whitewater Investigation against the Clintons.  Julie Doolittle has her own attorney, William Stauffer.  John Doolittle also established a Legal Defense Fund for his ongoing legal expenses, as he is heavily in debt.

More Local Angle: A local Defense Contractor in CA- 04 contributed money to that legal defense fund.   So did  Congressman Wally Herger(R) in neighboring district CA- 02, donating $5000 in Dec of 2007 as a ….. “neighborly gesture.”  So did Orrin Hatch’s (R, Senate, Utah) Orrin PAC, which cheerfully doubled the amount, to $10,000. OrrinPAC is heavily funded by Health Insurance lobbyists.  This is your health insurance premiums at work, folks.  Did I mention that the highest category of donation source to Doolittle’s would be Republican replacement, McClintock, is from the health insurance industry, per opensecrets?

Still More Local Angle: Do some of Doolittle’s former and current financial and political backers now support Republican Tom McClintock, who is trying to replace him after terming out of his southern California district ? You betcha.  

Gonzogate of CA:   http://solongjohn.blogspot.com…    http://www.dailykos.com/story/…    The Attorney General Firing Scandal, where 6 career prosecutors with the DOJ suddenly found themselves political targets being told to resign in , was sculpted in part by the need to keep DOJ  Southern CA district Atty General Carol Lam from filing bribery charges against Brent Wilkes, the federal Defense contractor who was bribing convicted Congressman Duke Cunningham (R), who is now in jail. Lam obtained a conviction against Cunningham in March 2006.   Atty Gen Carol Lam also did manage to indict Brent Wilkes and Dusty Foggo, ex CIA operative, on 2/13 before her forced resignation by former US Atty Gen Alberto Gonzales on Feb 15, 2007.  Gonzales would resign later over this scandal, after his underlings, such as Monica Goodling, testified before Congress.  Wilkes eventually went to trial in October of 2007 in San Diego, the trial was delayed by Southern CA wildfires, finally went to jury on Halloween, and  Wilkes was convicted on Nov 5, 2007, and sentenced in February 2008 of bribing Cunningham for a total of $46 million. http://www.signonsandiego.com/…    Other sources say the amount was closer to $80 million in government contracts in return for about $600,000 in bribes.    http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpoi…                                        SEE LINK HERE for Trick or Treat, Doolittle’s still not off the Hookergate Wilkes Trial:   http://www.dailykos.com/story/…

John Doolittle also earmarked $37 million dolllars in money for Brent Wilkes “Perfect Wave”. ( He also tried to earmark for Wilke’s “Mailsafe” technology after the anthrax contamination mail scare, but it didn’t fly.)  In return the Doolittles got donations from Wilke’s company, ADCS, totaling at least $118,000.   The San Diego Union Tribune estimated this meant $14,000 went into Julie Doolittle’s “fund grazing” business.   http://www.signonsandiego.com/…     Brent  Wilkes flew Tom DeLay, (ex Texas Congressman, used to be the Republican Majority Leader) to a Las Vegas Casino fundraiser for Doolittle at the Venetian Hotel in May 2004.   {{{{{{  see above “trick or treat” link, see also sign on sandiego link  }}}}.   John Doolittle also was subpoenaed to appear in the Brent Wilkes trial, but he had his lawyers tell them he didn’t need to show up.  http://www.dailykos.com/story/…      Mark Geragos, Wilke’s celebrity attorney, was going to try to use a defense that would claim that the defense contractors were getting abused by the Republican Congressional delegation that was shaking them down for earmarks and gifts.

Remember. Brent Wilkes hired Alexander Strategy Group as his lobbyist, which was Ed Buckhams’s company.  Buckham=Tom Delay’s ex COS.

Julie Doolittle, John’s wife, “worked” for Alexander Strategy, doing “fundraising” and “bookeeping.”

Christine Delay, Tom’s wife, also “worked” for Alexander Strategy.  Same deal. She’s a “consultant.”  1998 to 2002.

So, there is the wife of somebody on the House Appropriations Committee, a very powerful position, and the wife of the House Majority Leader, getting large monthly retainers for about 2 years for Julie, and 4 years for Christine, for “event planning” to raise money for Alexander Strategy, the Capitol Athletic Foundation, the US- Korea Exchange.  And it’s wasn’t hard work. It was barely work at all. Just show up at the lobbyist’s office and schedule opportunities to collect money from very willing donors.  And it was very lucrative.  One problem.  Not everyone in the world is allowed to give you money, when you work for the US government.

The government of Malaysia, using unsourced funny money, hires a lobbying/consulting firm called Bell Haven Consultants.

Bell Haven hires Alexander Strategy.   On September 27, 2001, only sixteen days after America’s 9/11 terror attack on the World Trade Center in NYC, this Alexander Strategy Group starts working for Belle Haven Consultants, seeking to “provide a better image of Malaysia to the USA.”  Malaysia is a predominantly Muslim country.

Belle Haven, Jack Abramoff, and Alexander Strategy share the same office in Hong Kong.

Ed Buckham of Alexander Strategy also formed another non profit called the US- Malaysia Exchange.

John Doolittle will take a trip to Langkawi, Malaysia in February of 2005.  The trip cost $29,400, and was paid by front groups paid by…. Alexander Strategy Group. (long comment I left in another diary with sources)  http://www.dailykos.com/commen…

John Doolittle hid the fact that he had stock in Chevron Oil until he revised his yearly financial statements after the FBI raid.

Malaysia has a government owned national oil company named Petronas, a huge company with projects in 31 companies, some with Chevron.  (which might have been involved in funding Belle Haven Consultants )

http://au.answers.yahoo.com/qu…

Alexander Strategy will eventually go out of business in January of 2006. http://www.washingtonpost.com/…

We may never find out completely what John Doolittle was up to.  Nor what Jack Abramoff did.   But in the aftermath of September 11th, 2001, a national tragedy…. there was something really suspicious going on.  Would that war not be seen as just another business opportunity.

Remember, when all this started to unravel, the Bush administration insisted there were weapons of mass destruction, that we were going to fight the Terrorist evildoers, that Al Queda was funded by Saddam Hussein and Iraq.  And one of Bush’s most loyal supporters and rubber stampers of policy and legislation has been Rep. John T. Doolittle.

Because so much has been written so much more eloquently about the Marianas Islands (CNMI) and John Doolittle’s involvement in blocking immigration and wage reform in these Pacific Ocean United States commonwealth territories, I will recomend Dengre’s 2006 and 2007 diaries for that storyline. http://dengre.dailykos.com/

A recent story, “Abramoff gets 4 years. McCain should not. ”    has great info on how Jack Abramoff was hired by the CNMI to lobby specifically against human rights advocate Wendy Doromal and her efforts to change the system of labor abuse  which John Doolittle was protecting in return for campaign donations from people running sweatshops… and worse:    http://www.dailykos.com/story/…

And dailykos poster leveymg has written a very good piece in June, on the relationship between Sen John McCain and Abramoff & the GOP Foreign Money Machine

http://www.dailykos.com/story/…

In that commentary, I left a very long comment concerning John Doolittle’s  2005 trip to Malaysia, which was paid for by 2 alleged “non- profits” funded by South Korea and Malaysian lobbyists(think Oil money) using Alexander Strategy Group as the front.  

http://www.dailykos.com/commen…

___

Tuesday morning update:  When I checked the online version and dead tree version of the Sacramento Bee this morning, it was edited so heavily and dumbed down enough to make it sound as if Doolittle was just taking restaurant meals and concert tickets from Ring and Abramoff in return for a few favors.  The lack of detail as to how sitting Congressmen were being bribed by lobbyists using foreign funds and defense contractors during wartime is appalling.  I am more convinced than ever that the Bush Administration (and the new management at SacBee) is handling Doolittle extremely carefully because if he testified against anyone, it would show that even the Dept. of Justice was compromised during this time period.

Links were also added.  

___

Humor Angle:  According to the AP, Abramoff has written a book in prison titled “The Perfect Villain: John McCain and the Demonization of Lobbyist Jack Abramoff, ” which blames the current Republican Presidential nominee and the WAPO for his current incarceration.  Jack, Jack, Jack…. you still don’t get it.  But thanks. Every little bit helps.

Other Humor Angle:  I just lost my electricity Monday while writing this at 4:07 pm.  Typical.  Electricity back up at 6:10 pm.  

______________

editing update: more links added. cross posting at http://www.eenrblog.com and http://www.dailykos.com/story/…

Even though John Doolittle is not on the ballot this year, his presence in a district that he dominated for years is still important for Republican branding.  Much like in Ohio, where the Tom Noe Coingate scandal spelled doom for all Republican statewide officers in 2006, the stench of scandal around Doolittle has the potential to severely tarnish the Republican brand in CA-04.  And if yesterday’s indictment of former Doolittle aide Kevin Ring is as advertised, which it appears to be, the brand isn’t just tarnished, it’s out in the dumpster:

The indictment adds additional information to Doolittle’s already thick record with Abramoff. According to the indictment, Ring expensed at least one suite for a sports event, eight concert tickets (including tickets for Dixie Chicks and Faith Hill), and five meals totaling more than $2000 for Doolittle. For Doolittle’s staff and his legislative director in particular, Ring bought 29 sports tickets, four concert tickets, nine meals, and one gift from Macy’s.

But Ring and Abramoff were well accommodated in return. As the indictment describes, Doolittle proved himself “a good soldier” by chairing a hearing on the Puerto Rico statehood issue for an Abramoff client and held up his opposition to an anti-gambling bill among other favors.

And Doolittle’s staff was just as helpful. Doolittle’s communications director helped Ring out with tax legislation to “earn [his] Sigs Sushi ;),” and his legislative director was so “tenacious on the appropriations front” that he earned an esteemed compliment from Ring in an email: “You the man.”

Doolittle is referred to (as “Representative 5”) in the indictment over 100 times.  If he’s actually indicted before the election, that will be a boost for Charlie Brown, as the culture of corruption which helped him to a near-upset in 2006 would come back into play.  And with carpetbagger Tom McClintock trying to lie his way to victory (subs. req.), his claim to the ethical high road isn’t all that firm, either.

0451_2  S.A. closeup



Why is this man standing in front of the Placer County Republican (and McClintock’s Campaign HQ)  office building in Roseville last Saturday morning?

0449 distance, #2



Steven Arreguin, who says he worked for the PCRP this spring doing voter registration work and has not been paid for it, in front of the McClintock/PCRP offices on Eureka Rd in Roseville Saturday Aug 23.

August 23, 2008.

This past Saturday morning in Roseville, passerby could see a curious sight in front of Tom McClintock’s official campaign Headquarters located in the district he’s trying to take over. A set of Republican protesters.   This is the photo of the one with the catchy sign I snagged as I drove by.  I parked nearby and observed for awhile.  The man in the photo did ask if I were a reporter for [“x”] and I said no, sorry.

This building, at 1700 Eureka Rd, also is the headquarters of the Placer County Republican Party, which is chaired by Tom Hudson.  Since Tom McClintock, a southern Californian from Thousand Oaks in Ventura County, does not have an in- district office, they share.  A man physically resembling Tom Hudson came out and yelled at the protesters during that morning.  He did not sound…. pleased with their presence.  But they didn’t go away.

The man in the photo, whom was introducing himself to other people as Steven Arreguin, and did not act in the least bit camera shy, claims the Placer County Republican Party and its Executive Committee owe him and his friend Joshua Kregger (not pictured but name was also on a handout being distributed) money for work they performed doing voter registration drives.   They also claim other people have been paid for this work, but not them.  They also claim that a person from Tom McClintock’s campaign “stated he would work to get us paid, even if it means he would go out and do the fundraising himself.  That was 2 weeks ago, and we still have bills to pay”  and they have not gotten their money, according to them, they are owed $3000.

Since the handout mentioned 5 names total, I decided to study the Federal Elections Commission (FEC) financial filings for the Placer County GOP and McClintock campaigns to see what they showed.  I also discovered some interesting background on Mr Arreguin, who has been doing voter registration type activities for years.  

This is a press release from the Shasta County Clerk’s office dated January 7, 2008 of this year.   http://www.elections.co.shasta…

Cathy Darling, County Clerk, announced today Steven Arreguin, 33, of Marysville was convicted Friday, January 4 of negligently holding a Shasta County citizen’s voter registration for three weeks, instead of turning it in to the county registrar within three days, as required by law. Arreguin was convicted of one misdemeanor count of Elections Code 18103 and was sentenced to three year probation, five days of community service and ordered to pay $490 in fines.

Arreguin is a petition and voter registration circulator active in Northern California that was working in Shasta County securing petition signatures for the Davis Recall. In Spring of 2003, Arreguin turned in 139 voter registration cards to the Shasta Registrar that he had been holding for as long as three weeks.  An investigation by the Secretary of State’s Election Fraud Investigation Unit found that, in addition to being late, two of the 139 registrants lived in the Mayers Memorial Hospital District that had just held a Special Election on 06/17/03. By the time the county received the voter registrations for these two residents, the deadline to register for the Special Election had passed. As a result, the two would-be voters were disenfranchised from casting their ballots in this Special Election.

The office of Shasta County Registrar of Voters Cathy Darling first forwarded information about the late registrations to Secretary of State investigators in June 2003. At the time, Arreguin was under investigation for turning in late registrations in Placer County. He was subsequently convicted on 10/22/03 in the Placer case and sentenced to three years probation and ordered to pay $2700 in fines.

Shasta County District Attorney Jerry Benito originally charged Arreguin with two misdemeanor counts of Elections Code Section 18103, negligently interfering with transfer of affidavit to a county elections official in May of 2004. Arreguin pled guilty to one count on January 4, 2008 and the second count was dismissed. The delay between the filing of the charges and the plea of guilty was due to the arrest warrant being outstanding.

So, Steven Arreguin has been convicted twice of turning in late voter registrations, for activities:

in spring 2003 in Placer County, convicted, fined, probation Oct 2003

in spring 2003 in Shasta County, charged 2004, convicted, fined, probation Jan 2008

CA state election law requires the voter registration cards be turned in to the county registrar’s office in 3 days.   The InterMountain News of Burney CA, and a Redding newspaper also ran the January 2008 press release.  

Steven Arreguin was mentioned in an October 2007 Sacramento Bee story as a former assistant to a long time financial supporter of John Doolittle, R, named Ken Campbell, the former head of the Placer County Republicans.  Campbell, a Lincoln real estate developer and the world’s most frightening ex- dentist,  was at that point turning his attentions and efforts towards ditching the Abramoff scandal- plagued Doolittle and finding a less tainted Republican candidate for the CA- 04 district.  I remember reading that article at the time and being astonished that Ken Campbell thought he could hide his distinctive writing style by trying to pass his anti- Doolittle website off on a surrogate.  http://www.sacbee.com/111/stor…

It was in October of 2007 that other Republicans began admitting in public that they wished Doolittle would just quietly go away and not run again.  It must have been the subpoenas.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/…  

Have the Placer County Republicans paid Joshua Kregger any money before for voter registration? Yes. Here is a March 2008 FEC filing that shows he was paid $184 in February 2008. http://query.nictusa.com/cgi-b…

In January 2008, he received 2 payments, $391  and $251.

http://query.nictusa.com/cgi-b…

In March 2008, Kregger recieved 3 payments, $172, $240, and $147 .  

http://query.nictusa.com/cgi-b…

In April, May, June, July 2008 I didn’t find any payments disbursed to either Arreguin or Kregger, although payments were being disbursed to others for “Voter Registration” .

Since a “Mrs Atterberry” was mentioned on the protest handout as having been paid to “process”  the registrations, therefore the protesters thought they should also be reimbursed,   I searched for her identity both as a politically involved Republican and as a person who was paid by either the Placer County Republicans or the McClintock campaign during this spring, or both.

On May 5, 2008, a “Karen Atteberry,” (one less “r” ) of Roseville was paid $500 by the Placer County Republicans for “administration support services. ”

http://query.nictusa.com/cgi-b…

The next month, June 5, 2008, Karen Atteberry, Roseville, was paid $120 , with the notation “see memo.”  (filings are made the subsequent month, so this is a July 2008 FEC document. )

Now look at this schedule H3 ( a detail of the different types of disbursements) for the same month.    http://query.nictusa.com/cgi-b…

TRANSFERS FROM NONFEDERAL ACCOUNTS

ALLOCATED FEDERAL/NONFEDERAL ACTIVITY

FILING FEC-353502

Committee: PLACER COUNTY REPUBLICAN PARTY (FEDERAL ACCT.)

Name of Account

Placer County Republican Party

Date of Reciept:

06/03/2008

Total Amount Transferred:

3168.00

Administrative / Voter Drive

    Administrative / Voter Drive Amount: 3168.00

Name of Account

Placer County Republican Party

Date of Reciept:

06/05/2008

Total Amount Transferred:

4761.71

Name of Account

Placer County Republican Party

Date of Reciept:

06/18/2008

Total Amount Transferred:

1951.74

What does this mean?  It means, in June of 2008, The Placer County Republican Party was transferring thousands of dollars of money on June 3, June 5, and June 18 to pay Somebody or Something. $3168 was paid to Somebody to do Admininstrative/ Voter Drive activity.

Look at schedule H6 for same report, same month,June 2008

These people were paid for “Voter Registration Service” for a total of only $1327  

Jim Dwyer Roseville 6/9/08        $146

Jim Dwyer Roseville 6/9/08         $ 96

Jim Dwyer Roseville 6/3/08         $471

John Anderson Fair Oaks 6/12/08      $253

Jim Dwyer Roseville 6/3/08          $361

There is a nearly $2000 gap between what the grunt walkers are getting and what Somebody is getting reimbursed for on June 3 for Voter Registration Activity.

Look at the Summary Page for this report June 1 thru 30,  2008          http://query.nictusa.com/cgi-b…

cash on hand  $7988

cash recieved  $9347

subtotal avail.    $17,336

_____________

Total disbursements    $14,721

cash on hand leftover    $2615

For the next month of July, 2008, the Summary Page says

 http://query.nictusa.com/cgi-b…

CASH ON HAND    $5440

DISBURSEMENTS $4248

___________________

LEFTOVERS           $1191

So it does appear that the Placer County Republican Party has spent much, is still spending some, but is not receiving at this point.  Historically, this account has supported just 3 candidates:

Rep. John Doolittle (R, CA- 04)

Bill Jones, when he ran and lost for Senate

Tom McClintock (R, Thousand Oaks) running out of district to replace Doolittle

http://query.nictusa.com/cgi-b…  

Steven Arreguin has been paid by the Placer County Republican Party in February 2006 for Voter Registration.    It can be found on Schedule H4 for Report FEC 217404, Disbursement for Allocated Federal/Nonfederal activity.   He would have been on probation from the first problem, since that conviction was in Oct of 2003, which was 2 years and 4 months back, leaving 8 months to go.

http://query.nictusa.com/cgi-b…        This is an amended report filed 5/12/2006 ,  covering period 2/1/2006 thru 2/28/2006

PAYEE   STEVEN ARREGUIN

(former address. he has a lot of them )

CARMICHAEL CA 95608

Purpose of Disbursement:  Service for Voter Registration Prior to Date of Event =  2/23/2006

AMOUNT DISBURSED =  $756.00

Look who gave the Placer County Republican Party Committee money that month:

  http://query.nictusa.com/cgi-b…

Ken W Campbell   Lincoln

Henry C Walther Granite Bay

John Doolittle for Congress    

Friends of Bruce Kranz

California Republican Party

(A Local Restaurant where they held meetings is listed as an equivalent donation)

Rep. John Doolittle and Ken Campbell, former deep pockets financial supporter, former employer of Steven Arreguin, had not yet officially become ex- very best friends at that point.  Doolittle went on to win his 2006 re election by a hair’s breath, winning by a few thousand votes over Democratic candidate Charlie Brown.   That fall- out  happened after April 2007, when the FBI raided Doolittle’s house in Oakton, VA, and Doolittle didn’t tell anyone about it for several days.

Was this payment to Arreguin a one- time deal? No.

AGAIN,  IN JAN 2006, Steven Arreguin was paid to do Voter Registration by the Placer County Republican Party.  (remember, Campbell is the former head of this group)

Look at Schedule H4, Disbursement for allocated federal/nonfederal activity  filing FEC – 203217  Placer County Republican Party Federal Acct

http://query.nictusa.com/cgi-b…

Payee:  Steven Arreguin

(former address )

Carmichael CA 95680

Purpose of disbursement:   Service for Voter Registration

Date of Event= 1//24/2006

Activity is Generic Voter Drive

Amount disbursed =  $864

There was also $1132.45 transfered to the PCRP account 1/7/06 for Admin. /Voter drive

http://query.nictusa.com/cgi-b…

During that same filing month of January, 2006, under receipts,  the Placer County Republican Party received 2 payments, $2500 and $5000, = $7500, from the Superior California PAC.   That is John Doolittle’s PAC.   They had total disbursements that month of $4302.

~~~~Conclusion~~~~

• So, what do we know? From examining the FEC financial filings for this organization, The Placer County Republican Party was paying at least one of the protestors, Josh Kregger,  in January, February, and March of this year, 2008, for “Voter Registration Drive” work.

•The Placer County Republican Party HAS paid a Karen Atteberry for “voter drive/ administrative” work.  Somebody not exactly specified is getting paid thousands of dollars for “administrative/voter”  work per the FEC filings.   Another consultant is getting paid thousands of dollars for GOTV “management.”

•The Placer County Republican Party HAS paid the man in the photo, Steven Arreguin, in previous years for the same type of work, but is not logging it officially this year. During January and February of 2006, Arreguin was paid by the Placer County Republican Party for “Voter Registration” while he was on probation for a conviction for voter registration fraud. During that time, both Ken Campbell and John Doolittle  gave money to the PCRP account.   Steven Arreguin has also been convicted of voter registration fraud in January 2008 for activities he was performing in Placer County in  2003, during the time of the CA governor’s recall election (a race in which Tom McClintock ran in, placing 3rd behind the winner, Gov. Schwarzenegger, (R) and Cruz Bustamente, (D).

•Tom McClintock (R) is running for office again, this time only in this district instead of statewide. This is still an interesting coincidence.

•Steven Arreguin is claiming he has worked for the Placer County Republican Party THIS SPRING doing voter registration and has not been paid, yet he also says that 2 weeks ago the McClintock campaign also has promised to pay him and that has not happened.

•Steven Arreguin is not claiming he’s any type of angel.  He just wants to get paid for work he claims to have performed so far.  He is willing to ask publically why he has not been paid, when other people also working on this activity have been.  This is a good question.

•As of June, 2008, the Placer County Republican Party had $2615  cash on hand.  As of July, 2008, they had $1191.   They are currently running low on money.  They are also running solicitations right now on their Republican websites for voter registration workers.  Notice how Karen Atteberry is mentioned on this page :

http://www.sacrepublicans.org/…

And on this one.     http://www.placergop.org/offic…

•The Tom McClintock for Congress Campaign, from studying their FEC financial report filings,  HAS paid the Placer County Republican Party at least $5000  (in May 2008) for GOTV type activities.   There is proof of a financial relationship between the 2 organizations concerning voter registration activities.  Doolittle’s Superior California Leadership PAC is also NOT DEAD YET.  It has received donations recently this year from an El Dorado County Real Estate developer in May,  and from Rep. Wally Herger (R, CA ) in March 2008.  Doolittle’s Superior PAC has so far given money to the Placer County Republican Party account in Feb 2007 this election cycle, but it’s still solvent, up, and ready to donate with a $6000 + balance.

•If the Placer County Republican Party is using people to collect voter registrations and then there is no official acknowledgment of their activities, plus there are OTHER people getting paid to “administrate”  such activities,   it is reasonable for people to ask just what is being done with those registrations in the interim.   We have a responsibility to each other to make sure that every registration of a voter makes it to the proper place on time and is not delayed or neglected, resulting in a loss of registration without the potential voter having any inkling as to what is really going on if it were to come down to the voting day when they found out. Or if they just didn’t receive their mail- in ballot.

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0451 last pic



“Republicans Not Paying Republicans. Why?”   Now, that’s a good question.                    

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(photos by diary author. Disclosure. Nobody paid me to write this, either. )

cross posted at dailykos, EENR blog

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Links

http://www.theimnews.com/Archi…   this is a pdf of the Inter Mountain News of Burney, CA January 2008 archives, had the article about Arreguin’s previous convictions on violating election law.

http://query.nictusa.com/cgi-b…   This is the FEC disclosure for Committee C00395590   Placer County Republican Party Federal Acct.  (plug in this number into the electronic file retrieval  for the documents I was working off of)

http://query.nictusa.com/cgi-b…    This shows this Committee has supported 3 candidates in the past and currently:

John Doolittle (R) Congressman CA- 04, not running again

Bill Jones, (R) failed Senate Candidate in 2004

Tom McClintock (R) candidate to replace Doolittle

Mama link page for Electronic filings by Placer County Republican Party Federal Acct

http://query.nictusa.com/cgi-b…

It’s time to take a closer look at our Republican candidate running against Democrat Charlie Brown.

LameDuck State Senator Tom McClintock (R,  Thousand Mailing Addresses, currently using one in SoCal ) the Republican candidate for CA- 04, a district in the North,  went to the Rocklin Unified School District Board on Wed, July 16,  and did a little 3 minute speech in favor of  Rocklin Academy’s company being able to establish a charter high school for grades 7 to 12, which would be called Western Sierra Collegiate Academy, aka “WSCA.”  http://www.wscacademy.org/  

0438



Southern CA State Senator Tom McClintock at the Rocklin School Board meeting July 16, 2008  

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The public meeting started late while the Rocklin school board wrestled in private session with the teacher’s union, and finally got going after 8pm.  (The teacher’s union is not real happy that the charter school would use the public facilities yet pay the private teachers a higher salary.)  This gave me a chance to study the written curriculum proposal in detail, it resembled what I took in high school for college prep classes over 30 years ago.

Finally, after the proponents began the proposed WSCA Charter School presentation, they let Tom McClintock go first as one of the public commentators because He Was Important.  Before that he was sitting up in front of the room full of Moms who wanted the Chartered School.  It was a little bit scary for me to be there, I was the only one not in polyester, I was really hoping I wouldn’t be standing out as {{{  A Potential Secular Humanist for having read George Bernard Shaw’s “Major Barbara” in High School, besides all that Shakespeare }}} but the lady handling the information packets was super nice and helpful.  

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Besides the thick notebooks full of the details, and various endorsements from politicians, there is even a single page handout with what McClintock’s Opinion On the Charter School Proposal.  Mind you, this is a private business enterprise.  The Rocklin Academy, which runs a charter elementary school in the district, tried pitching this high school before, and their proposal was rejected on not having the proposed financial budget being realistic.  The WSCA Charter School would use state funding, therefore, it must operate in the black and not on a deficit.

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0437



Tom McClintock (left, front row, red tie ) and the professional advocates of the proposed Western Sierra Collegiate Academy (WSCA) Charter School, at the Rocklin School Board meeting July 16, 2008 . This is what the school board is looking at.  They’ve threatened to sue the school district if they don’t get the charter school approved, the district is balking over the financial budget.  The photos on the wall in the background are the schools in the district. The Charter company is proposing using the public facilities for its high school.

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So Tom McClintock goes into his little prepared speech about the Chartered School.   This is one of his first SPEAKING public engagements since he started running for the Congress seat being vacated by Rep. John Doolittle (R, CA-04, Chevron, Not Yet Indicted),  so there are people with Real Cameras there, beside me with the smaller camera.

Where is Rep. Doolittle ?  He’s here in the state the same day, but he’s flying around overhead with President Bush and Governor Schwarzenegger  and Rep. Wally Herger , chaperoned by Senator DiFi, and surveying the catastrophic wildfire damage caused by lightning strikes June 21, which were ongoing.  He doesn’t dare show up in his own burning district with Bush and McClintock when the air is literally this thick.

0440



A month after lightning sparked over a thousand wildfires, smoke still chokes the foothills of Northern CA near Lincoln, at 8am in the morning over 50 miles away from the 2 largest ones near Paradise and Foresthill. ( This picture was taken a few days after the Presidential flyover. )

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 They are instead going to land in Redding.  I created a graphic image for this using magic markers on posterboard.  

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0441

July 16, 2008.  Chart of locations of politicians that day in California. President Bush, the state’s Governor Schwarzenegger, Rep. Doolittle, Rep. Herger, and Senator Diane Feinstein have flown over the state looking at the ongoing wildfire castastrophe, which started June 21, and landed in Redding.  The aspiring Doolittle replacement is in Rocklin.  Map is to scale, drawn by author.

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CA- 04 is in the upper north eastern quadrant of the state.  

See how far away Redding is from Doolittle’s district. It’s in Wally Herger’s (R) district in CA 02.  See how far away State Sen. McClintock’s current district, down in Southern California on the coast near LA,  is from our district.

I talked to some people in Wally Herger’s (R) CA 02 district afterwards, and much to my relief there was a protest contingent up there in Redding to greet the President and the Enablers.  

Back to Rocklin.

McClintock is chugging along at the podium for his 3 minutes with his notes, comparing private vs public school competition to that of Ford automobiles to GM automobiles, and how that makes cars better, and I feel a tiny glimmer of hope that maybe the Republicans will say something vaguely interesting before November.  I’m a little surprised he didn’t use Model T vs. Horse and Buggy, but he’s obviously being coached by a lot of expensive campaign consultants and it is having results.

And then he mentions that when he was renting a house here in Rocklin during the 1995- 1996 school year, (he’s real proud of that one, he RENTED a house in the district 13 years ago so that’s his local residency proof of purchase )  when his daughter was attending Cobblestone School in Rocklin, he wished that there was THIS charter school there at the time.  

And I thought,  whoa Nelly.  Here’s why.  This is a picture I took during the 4th of July parade this year in Lincoln. I had a small pic of his float in my previous diary which was on the EENR blog. http://www.eenrblog.com/showDi…

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0358



Republican Parade Float Entry Lincoln 4th of July parade 2008

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 This was his first large scale public appearance during the general election campaign, the others were done mostly as Republican debates with the other Republican candidates in front of mostly Republican adult audiences during the primary this spring.  This is a closeup of the McClintocks on the float.

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0361

Tom McClintock & “Family” on the 4th of July parade float in Lincoln

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As you can see, this is Tom McClintock, and that is his wife, Lori McClintock.  I know this is Lori, because she was at the March 2008 McClintock campaign launch in Auburn, where somebody produced a bouquet of daffodils, handed it to the male Republicans, and they kept passing them around like yellow cooties until Lori got stuck with them.   McClintock’s press releases always say  McClintock is married to Lori and they have 2 children, Justin and Shannah.  It would not be unreasonable to assume, therefore, that if somebody has 2 kids and they and their wife are on a parade float that has ANOTHER FAMILY FOR McCLINTOCK placards plastered all over it,  plus is surrounded by Republicans bearing the same signs, that those could be the McClintock children.

Now, note how YOUNG those children look in the photo. The little girl looks maybe 10 or at most 12,  and the little boy about 5 years old.  Tell me how old the girl on the parade float must have been in 1995.  

Did this child even exist yet in 1995 ?

And then I thought, this is absurd.  He is standing here in front of a bunch of mothers who want to send their kids to a charter high school and pretending he had a like aged child ready for high school college prep classes 1995,  and he didn’t.  Otherwise the child would now be 13 years ago + age 14 ready for 9th grade class, or about 27 years old by now !

But it gets better.

I went through lots and lots of “official” Tom McClintock information on the web,  and all it ever says is “he has 2 children, Justin and Shannah.”   No ages.  I want to know old they are.  

So I went digging back through some older back issues of various news articles until I finally found several in different years (because he has run for so many different state offices ) that referenced their ages.  They are currently approximately 17 or 18 years old for the girl, and 15 or 16 years old for the boy.  From an August 2003 story in the LA Times

“McClintock and his wife Lori, have a son, Justin, 11, and a daughter, Shannah, 13”  

 http://articles.latimes.com/20…

I also searched for any pictures, and finally came up with this, taken in September of 2003. Click here for what the McClintock children looked like 5 years ago:

http://www.jamd.com/search?tex…  

http://www.jamd.com/image/g/25…      (edit. try clicking on this)

As you can see, these children 5 years ago already looked much older than the children on the parade float.  So by now the daughter is too old to attend that charter high school anyway.  But the resemblance of the real ones to the parade float children is spooky, is it not ?

The town the parade was held in, Lincoln, CA,  has quadrupled its population in the last 10 years from about 10,000 to 40,000. This means that most of the people don’t know the McClintocks, not that he ever lived around there recently. They would be looking at the parade float, and be fooled.  McClintock and his family have lived for years in Elk Grove, south of Sacramento, which is in Dan Lungren’s ( R )  CA- 03 district,  although McClintock uses Thousand Oaks in SoCal as his “official” residence and collects a tax free per diem payment from the state of CA for the travel obligation.

I was very tempted to title this story “Forever Young.”  I have seen lots of cynical attempts to manipulate one’s public image, but this one has to take the cake.  When it happens more than once, it is definitely a trend.  

_________________

photos by diary author unless otherwise attributed.  Appearance of candidate continues to be pinker than his surrounding humans, creating a difficult quandary…. decided to leave him pinker and let it be.

cross posted at EENR blog. cross posted at dailykos.

I don’t know if people still have some notion that Tom McClintock is a good general election candidate, having never won a contested general election race, but this John Doolittle affair should completely put an end to that.

The story goes that on June 16, McClintock appeared to signal that he would be meeting with the disgraced Congressman to talk about campaigning in tandem during the fall election.

“We’re talking about doing a couple of events and we’re putting them together,” said Doolittle spokesman Dan Blankeburg….Stan Devereux, a spokesman for McClintock, confirmed that the campaign had set up a meeting to discuss Doolittle’s support for McClintock.”

The very next day, June 17, a McClintock spokesman denied any desire for an endorsement or joint campaign event.

“If you’re running as an outsider why would you want anyone’s endorsement?” asked John Feliz, a McClintock consultant, when asked if the campaign would be receiving Doolittle’s stamp of approval.” June 17, 2008, PolitickerCA.

Then on June 18, McClintock’s spokesman contradicted his consultant:

McClintock spokesman Stan Devereux told Election Central that the ongoing investigations against Doolittle would not render him a political liability: “Doolittle is still the congressman for the area, has served the district well.”

McClintock himself contradicted his own spokesman on June 20:

“I don’t have any plans to meet with Doolittle next week and I don’t have any plans to campaign with Doolittle,” McClintock said by phone from Sacramento.”

Two days later, on June 22, there was news in the El Dorado Mt. Democrat of an imminent meeting:

Fourth Congressional District Republican nominee Tom McClintock will meet with Rep. John Doolittle, R-Rocklin, next week to discuss his campaign, a Doolittle spokesman said Wednesday…he (McClintock) said, …’I certainly do welcome the intimate knowledge Doolittle has with the district…’ …The meeting is planned for June 27.”

And yesterday, June 25, McClintock told Roll Call that he killed the meeting.

State Sen. Tom McClintock (R), running for the 4th district seat being vacated by Rep. John Doolittle (R), said Tuesday that he personally killed a meeting between him and the Congressman.

This is the work of a schizophrenic, not a disciplined campaigner.  Truthfully, the McClintock team probably wants Doolittle’s help but doesn’t want anyone to know about it, but there are ways to go about that which look less… pathetic than this.  Word is that McClintock has already pissed off local reporters with this behavior of saying different things at different times.

Charlie Brown is going to have a field day with this guy.

It’s hard to describe fully how stupid this is:

John Doolittle, the retiring congressman who is under investigation for his ties to jailed lobbyist Jack Abramoff, appears likely to campaign for state Sen. Tom McClintock, the Republican nominee for Doolittle’s Roseville-area seat.

“We’re talking about doing a couple of events and we’re putting them together,” said Doolittle spokesman Dan Blankeburg. Blankeburg declined to provide any further details, adding that the two sides had only talked in what he called “conceptual terms.” […]

Stan Devereux, a spokesman for McClintock, confirmed that the campaign had set up a meeting to discuss Doolittle’s support for McClintock.

Doolittle was running 20 points behind Charlie Brown in the polls before dropping out of the race.  Southern Californian McClintock may not know the rules up in the Sierras, but political common sense dictates that this is a guy you run screaming from in the other direction, not WITH.

Looks to me like McClintock hasn’t locked down the “gimme gimme” base of Doolittle’s support, those who received political favors and giveaways from him.  Brown was undoubtedly going to tie the two together based on their shared radical ideology – apparently McClintock wants to make that easier by sharing the penchant for using government as a profit-taking machine.  Maybe Doolittle can introduce ol’ Tom to Jack Abramoff.

(Help Charlie meet his goal of $100 for every mile carpetbagger McClintock traveled to the district. – promoted by Julia Rosen)

Charlie Brown, running for Congress in California’s 4th District, needs our help! I just received this email in my inbox, as I’m sure hundreds of you also have. Let’s send Charlie into battle well-armed and prepared for these foreign invaders (quite literally foreign– none of the Republicans running in this race even come from the 4th District) by sending in a donation to the Brown campaign!

For those of you who DON’T know Charlie Brown and have been living under a rock for the last year and a half, here’s a link to his website:

www.charliebrownforcongress.org

Here are a few other links to get you aquainted.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Brown_%28California%29

Lincoln News messenger article

Grass Valley Union article

Charlie has been a tremendous voice for those of us in the 4th District, and he’s been leading by example even from the campaign trail. Charlie is donating 5% of his campaign funds to local charity organizations that service veterans and their families. You can find more information on Charlie’s Veterans Challenge by clicking here.

Dear Friends,

As you know, last week, another career politician from outside the 4th District–Southern California State Senator Tom McClintock–entered the GOP primary to replace Rep. John Doolittle.  

We asked you to help us raise one hundred dollars for every one of the 418 miles separating McClintock’s office in Thousand Oaks with our office in Roseville–between partisan politics as usual and a new standard of leadership in the fourth district.  

So far, you are doing a great job.  Hundreds have already contributed and we are more than halfway to our March 31st goal as of this morning.

Click here to contribute and keep the momentum going.

You may be aware that last week, LA Tom also announced that he wasn’t planning to move into the district until after the election.  That means he won’t even be able to vote in the same races as the people he claims to represent.   McClintock’s arrogant brand of partisan political opportunism exemplifies what’s broken in Washington.

This race was never truly about John Doolittle. It was and is about changing a system that promotes career politicians who care more for personal gain than the common good. John Doolittle, Tom McClintock and Doug Ose are all symptoms of the same partisan problem—birds of a feather, feathering their nests.

And we already know the consequences of representatives who put political partisanship first.  It’s $4.00/gallon gas, and record amounts of oil imported from the middle east.  It’s Americans working harder for less, unprecdented waste of our tax dollars, the stifling of the American innovation, and the exportation of American jobs.  It’s 30 years of inaction on our borders, Al Qaeda growing resurgent in Afghanistan, and more blank checks for no bid contractors and Iraqi politicians.  

Our campaign has been about results, accountability and putting patriotism before partisanship.  That’s why we donate 5% of every dollar we raise to veterans service providers.  That’s why we pitched in to help during the Tahoe fires.  That’s why more than 11,000 of you have donated to this campaign for change.

Please, contribute today to help us put a stop to the kind of politics that cares more about partisan sound bytes, than solving America’s problems.  We can, and we must.

I promise you, every day from now until the next election— we are going to get up early, work all day and keep doing what has made us so successful so far. We are going to unite the people of this district and this nation behind the battle tested vision we need to get America back on track—country comes first.  

Our goal is $41,800 by the FEC Deadline of March 31st.

Click here to help us welcome Tom McClintock to town and send Charlie Brown to Washington. Every dollar counts and now is the time to make your voice heard.

Thank you in advance for your continued support.

Very Sincerely,

Todd A. Stenhouse

Campaign Manager

P.S.  Click here to donate today and help us raise $100 for every mile Senator Tom is going to have to drive to get from Southern California to our district.  And please forward this urgent message to five friends.

In an email to supporters this week, Pete McCloskey tried to close the book on the Revolt of the Elders.

Now Hastert is leaving, DeLay has left, Ney is in jail, Pombo has been dethroned by Jerry McNerney, and now Doolittle is leaving. The lesson (to be pondered by the new Democrat majority):  “Power indeed corrupts.”

I remember McCloskey’s commentary on those famous words from Lord Acton used above.  He wrote about visiting his Stanford Law School friend John Ehrlichman in prison and hearing Ehrlichman saying that “It took us three-and-a-half years to be corrupted by the power. …”

I already see signs that the flow of corrupting influences has begun to move.  K-Street is hiring Democrats.  Members of Congress resigned at the end of 2007 so that their time in the lobby penalty box is one year shorter.

Maybe, we need a people’s lobby.  There are some who claim that this resides on the internet.  Maybe so, maybe not.

I just received an email from Charlie Brown that I’ve been asked to reprint here.  I’ve put it underneath the fold.

The California Congressional races are really heating up, and Charlie Brown remains the best chance for us to get not just a new Democrat, but new leadership in Congress, even without John Doolittle sitting there as a stooge.  I think the letter below explains why.

UPDATE: The permutations on the Republican side considered here.

When Jan and I started this campaign in our living room back in the summer of 2005, we knew in our hearts that something was terribly wrong with the direction of the country we loved, had served and protected.

We believed it was our duty and our responsibility to do something about it. Out of that belief, came our decision that I should run for Congress-squaring off against an entrenched incumbent who epitomized the problem in Washington. Out of your efforts came our near miss in 2006, and an intensifying groundswell of momentum for change every day since.

Yesterday was an historic day. John Doolittle finally retired. But the heart and soul of our mission remains the same today has it has for the past two years.

Country comes first. Together, we need to make our government about patriotism, not partisanship. Together, we need to restore America’s place in the world and secure our families here at home. To put the needs of regular Americans before the needs of corrupt politicians and powerful donors. To honor the service of those that fight to keep us free and to make sure the promises made to them by their country are honored by our leaders. That mission has not changed and the job is only half done.

You should feel proud today. You helped create a situation where John Doolittle was forced to do the right thing. This is no small accomplishment. All of us in the fourth district who care about honest government and responsible leadership are grateful for your efforts. And together, we have only begun to create the lasting change that this district and our country so desperately needs.

We will not rest. Today, the GOP is already hard at work in their attempt to put another lifelong “partisanship first” politician in office in CA-04. The last thing we are going to do now is let one life long politician be replaced by another!

That’s why today—and every day from now until the next election—we are going to get up early, work all day and keep doing what has made us so successful so far. We are going to reach out to the people of this district and this nation who want to see patriotism mean more than partisanship, and we are going to ask for their help,

support and their vote.

In the end, the battle that lies ahead is about the kind of country we want our kids to inherit—not one that is divided in terms of red and blue—but one that is united by a shared purpose, common values, and focused on producing real results for the district and country we are proud to call home.

The next phase in our battle starts today. And you can help keep our momentum going by

pledging your support, volunteering to host a house party, or recruiting 3 friends to join our e-mail list.

Together, our best days are ahead. And remember, every action you take today brings us that much closer to completing this mission.

Thank you again for your continued support.

Very Sincerely,

Charlie Brown, Lt. Col. USAF Ret.