This Time It's For Real: Doolittle to Drop Out, Oller in for Congressional Seat

[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."
 
Gaines has been mobilizing for a run. A "Draft Ted" website has been set up, and the media-savvy Gaines has been active in blaming environmentalists for last summer's Tahoe fires. It is not clear whether the politically ambitious Gaines would stick it out in a primary fight with Oller; both share many of the same allies, though Doolittle's faithful are likely to stick with Oller.

There's more...

Photo courtesy Turn Tahoe Blue.