[courtesy of The California Majority Report]

Is it fair for anyone to tell the candidate who won California, New York, Texas and Ohio to step aside for the good of the party? Hillary Clinton had a great night yesterday, ending Barack Obama's winning streak and giving her campaign new life, the Los Angeles Times reports, but Obama's approximately 100-point delegate lead persists. Figuring out the fair thing to do is what this so difficult.

He's in and he's in to win: Tom McClintock, the grounchy-in-your-face conservative state senator of Thousand Oaks is running for Congress—418 miles away from his home (see map above), the Sacramento Bee reports. McClintock's bid for the Fourth Congressional District ended the campaign of Rico Oller, and Democrat Charlie Brown quipped that he would raise $100 for every mile between the 4th and Thousand Oaks.

Oddly enough, McClintock seems to be "fleeing" his hometown just as Democrats gained a registration edge in Ventura County for the first time since Ronald Reagan's presidency, a point not lost on Democratic state chair Art Torres, the Ventura County Star reports. This reflects trends throughout the state as red specks become purple.

There's more...

Photo courtesy of CNN

[courtesy of The California Majority Report]

A package of emergency spending cuts will get the Legislature on track to close this year's deficit, but tougher, more politically challenging cuts loom ahead, the San Francisco Chronicle reports. Potential pitfalls includeGovernor Schwarzenegger's proposal to close a number of state parks anddeep cuts to public education, a cause dear to many suburbanRepublicans as well as Democrats.

It is somewhat amusing that some Legislative Republicans, probably having just reviewed their "talking points," would have the audacity to call repeal of the yacht tax a "tax increase," as reported by the San Diego Union Tribune. Several members of the GOPcaucus were sensible enough to make these largely wealthy folks paytheir fair share, but some just couldn't do it.

Thought the Do Not Call list was enough to maintain the quiet duringdinner? Apparently, robo political calls were exempt from the law, and they keep right on calling, according to the Chronicle. It seems silly—as one recipient noted inthe article: they usually call people who vote anyway and end up makingenemies.

by David Dayen [courtesy of Calitics - Front Page]

I've been a really, really bad blogger and have stopped my Congressional House Roundup.  So here's a mini-one.  I've dug up the totals for 2007 fundraising in the top races in the state, and they're a little interesting.  Here are the numbers from the key races.

CA-11:

Jerry McNerney raised $1.065 million in 2007, has $760,000 cash on hand

Dean Andal raised $535,000, has $471,000 CoH

CA-04:

Charlie Brown raised $506,000, has $383,000 CoH

Eric Egland raised $141,000, has $79,000 CoH

There are no fundraising numbers yet for the new challengers who have entered the race on the Republican side, including former State Sen. Rico Oller and former US Rep. Doug Ose.  By the way, Ose has donated to Doolittle's legal defense fund, along with Minority Leader John Boehner.  Reformers, all of them!

CA-26:

David Dreier raised $599,000, has $1.96 million CoH

Russ Warner raised $380,000, has $240,000 CoH

Hoyt Hilsman raised $114,000, has $10,550 CoH

Obviously, Dreier is sitting on a goldmine.  

CA-50:

Brian Bilbray raised $419,000, has $262,000 CoH

Nick Leibham raised $211,000, has $188,000 CoH

Very encouraging.

Others to note:

[courtesy of The California Majority Report]

Former President Bill Clinton received an enthusiastic reception at UC Davis last night as he made the case that wife Hillary Clinton has the grit,werewithall and tenacity to be a great Commander-in-Chief, theSacramento Bee reports. But while students were fired up about hearingthe former president, many who were interviewed afterwards said theyremained undecided.

With the February 5 election just a couple of weeks away, the ad wars are already in full swing, with a particularly aggressive opposition to the four Indian gamingcompacts up for authorization, the Bee reports. The ads currentlyrunning feature a number of Indian tribe members who would not benefitfrom the compacts, the argument being that only the elite gain fromthese deals. But in a painful budget year, can be afford to forgo thismuch-needed revenue?

It speaks to Rico Oller's extreme right-wing views thatthe Club for Growth is getting ready to bankroll his campaign toreplace disgraced Congressman John Doolittle. The Bee also reports thatOller will likely be opposed by the Humane Society over his poor animalrights record. Oller's response? "It's no surprise that liberal groupsare unhappy about me running. They don't like me. I don't like them."

There's more...

Photo courtesy of the Sacramento Bee.

[courtesy of The California Majority Report]

Embattled Congressman John Doolittle, the focus of a federal corruption probe, will announce that he will not seek re-election paving the way for former State Sen. Rico Oller for the 4th District Congressional seat, the California Majority Report has learned. The move, first noted back in November in the Stockton Record, could come as early as this week.
 
Oller served in the Assembly and for one-term in the Senate before narrowly losing a brutal GOP primary for the neighboring Third Congressional seat in 2004 against now-Congressman Dan Lungren and Mary Ose, sister of former Congressman Doug Ose. Oller is a slick ultra-right conservative cut from the same cloth as Doolittle. In his last race for Congress, Oller enjoyed strong support from religious conservatives, anti-tax zealots, and the NRA. Oller has considerable personal wealth to fund his campaign, and owns property in the 4th District.
 
But Oller's toughest GOP challenger may be Assemblymember/Insurance Agent Ted Gaines of Roseville, who was a two-term member of the Placer County Board of Supervisors before being elected to the legislature in 2006. Gaines has been an ineffective legislator, but, like Oller, has conservative credentials. His goal in the legislature, according to his website: "I look forward to working to make sure our state is not overrun by the liberals from San Francisco and Los Angeles."