GOP candidates line up quickly to replace Doolittle

The Mercury News ^ | December 11, 2007 | Samantha Young

[Clintonfatigued]

Rep. John Doolittle's decision to retire promises a Republican primary fight between political veterans and novices eager to take one of the few wide-open congressional races in California this year. While Doolittle narrowly fended off a Democratic challenge in 2006, analysts expect an easier time for whichever Republican emerges victorious in the June primary election.

Doolittle, who is under investigation in a congressional lobbying scandal, announced Thursday that he will retire at the end of his current term, his ninth in the House of Representatives.

He has retained solid voter support for most of his 17 years in Congress. In 2004, before the Justice Department began investigating his ties to lobbyist Jack Abramoff, Doolittle won 65 percent of the vote.

Winning the GOP primary is considered nearly a lock to win the seat in November. Republicans have a 17 percentage point edge over Democrats in the 4th Congressional District, which stretches from the Sacramento suburbs east to Nevada and north to the Oregon border.

The district has shown consistently that it prefers Republican elected officials to Democratic ones, said Allan Hoffenblum, publisher of the California Target Book, which analyzes legislative and congressional campaigns. In 2006, for example, voters favored Republican Dick Mountjoy in his shoestring campaign against U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, a moderate Democrat.

"The Democrats did better two years ago because John Doolittle was the issue," said Tim Hodson, executive director of the Center for California Studies at Sacramento State University.

"With John Doolittle out of the race, that no longer becomes the dominate issue, so the Democratic prospects will be less optimistic this year."

Eric Egland, an Air Force reservist and political newcomer, and former Auburn Mayor Mike Holmes, who lost to Doolittle in the 2006 primary, had planned to challenge the congressman

[Clintonfatigued]

The field will form quickly. Doolittle says he’ll be publicly neutral.

[fieldmarshaldj]

I read he’s supposedly going to endorse Rico Oller (if not publicly, privately). Whomever gets the nod is going to have to raise money pronto to match the huge fundraising advantage Charlie Brown has.