State Assemblyman Ted Gaines — thought to be one of the strongest candidates to replace retiring Congressman John Doolittle — anounced that he would not seek the CA-04 seat, but instead would focus on relection to his Assembly seat.
That leaves already declared candidates former State Senator Rico Oller, war hero Major Eric Egland, and Auburn Councilman Mike Holmes still in the race.
Also rumored is former CA-03 Congressman Doug Ose. Ose, who has shown he’ll tap personal resources to win, is considered a strong candidate in the race. Ose has been making calls, but has yet to declare his intentions.
Local pols will remember that Ose and Oller have sparred in the past when Marry Ose (his sister) ran for the seat Doug vacated in keeping with his 3-term limit pledge. In the end, Dan Lungren was elected to the seat.
The following story ran in the SacBee website just afew minutes ago…
Gaines will not run for Doolittle’s seat
WASHINGTON – Assemblyman Ted Gaines announced Monday that he will not run for the House seat being vacated by Rep. John Doolittle, R-Roseville.
Gaines, who had formed an exploratory committee last fall after coming to the conclusion that the scandal-scarred Doolittle could not retain his seat in a another general election match-up with Democratic challenger Charlie Brown, said he wants to focus on the Assembly seat he won in the 2006 elections.
"I feel like I’ve made an impact," Gaines said in a telephone interview. Gaines said he believes the threat he posed to Doolittle was a factor in pressuring the nine-term congressman to announce his retirement last week. "We’ve cleared the field for good Republicans to step up."
Former state Sen. Rico Oller, R-San Andreas, said last week he will seek the Republican nomination and former U.S. Rep. Doug Ose, R-Sacramento, is expected to announce this week that he also will join the fray.
[Publisher’s Note: Assemblyman Gaines graciously called this morning to inform me of his decision. If I may add to what Tab has already written, Gaines told me that he had discussed the matter with family and friends. Due to those conversations and the fact he is enjoying his current position in Sacramento tackling the tough issues our state is facing, he had arrived at the decision not to run for Congress. We all respect that choice and we are very pleased to have the opportunity to keep him in the Assembly a little longer. Gaines also made a point to me that he was optimistic about the disposition of the congressional seat (about it remaining in Republican hands) because of the good group of candidates who have already announced their intentions. He was sure that a strong conservative would ultimatey assume the position and he looked forward to seeing to it that that happened.]