Last Friday in the mid-afternoon, things went a little crazy as I received a call from a close source 
letting me know that 10-term Republican Congressman Elton Gallegly (pictured to the left) was retiring. Of course this is big news because Members of Congress tend to serve for a long time, and since almost all are in non-competitive districts, they serve as long as they want. One of them retiring is big news, but we actually have two, with Congressman Bill Thomas of Bakersfield also leaving at the end of this year. However, it would be unfair to compare the retirement of Gallegly with that of Thomas. While I am no fan of Thomas, he is retiring the right way, and Gallegly… Well, here is the tale as best as I’ve been able to reconstruct it by talking to various sources and contacts…
Let’s start with attorney Michael Tenenbaum (pictured to the right), an attorney in his mid-30’s who has spent the last year-or-so getting involved with Republican politics in Ventura County. He grew up in the area, graduated top of his class at UCLA, went on to get his Juris Doctorate from Harvard Law School, and has been very successful in business. Why is this important? Well, Tenenbaum, whom I met briefly at the State GOP Convention in San Jose a few weeks ago (sporting a new State Central Committee appointment from Ventura County GOP Chairman Leslie Cornejo, a reward for being a hard worker) decided that he was going to run for Congress – against the local GOP incumbent, Elton Gallegly! Apparently Tenenbaum was unhappy with Gallegly…or just felt he could do a better job…
Anyways, Gallegly filed for re-election a few weeks ago, and Tenenbaum filed earlier last week – a odd match up in the making, taking out an incumbent being a tough task for anyone.
**There is more – click the link**
March 13th, 2006 at 12:00 am
The latest from Roll Call:
GOP Source: Gallegly to Switch Course, Seek Re-election
Monday, March 13
By David M. Drucker,
Roll Call Staff
Rep. Elton Gallegly (R-Calif.) has reconsidered a last-minute decision to retire and will announce Tuesday that he intends to seek re-election this year after all, a move that comes at the urging of House leaders and members of California’s GOP delegation, a knowledgeable source said late Monday.