Who will Charlie run against?

Former state Sen. Rico Oller
Assemblyman Ted Gaines
Eric Egland (Iraq Vet)
Mike Holmes (Former Auburn Mayor)
Former Congressman Doug Ose
Other?

Doolittle's exit opens up contest
Nine-term lawmaker, 'at peace,' bows out; Oller jumps into race.
By Peter Hecht - And David Whitney | Published 12:00 am PST Friday, January 11, 2008

Rep. John Doolittle's decision to retire after his ninth term in Congress ignited a growing contest Thursday for a staunchly Republican seat seen as vulnerable due to an FBI investigation into Doolittle's ties to disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

After branding would-be election opponents as "weasels" and repeatedly declaring he would run again despite the corruption probe, Doolittle on Thursday declared that he was "at peace" and free of bitterness in announcing he will retire from Congress at the end of his current term.

His departure from the House seat he held for 17 years signals the end of a three-decade political career. His exit could also leave a political void in the greater Sacramento region – where Doolittle, 57, earned renown for using his clout to secure millions of dollars for public works projects to accommodate rapid growth in his district.

Immediately, longtime Doolittle supporter and former state Sen. Rico Oller said Thursday he would run for Doolittle's seat. A political consultant who has worked with former Sacramento-area Republican Rep. Doug Ose said Ose was also seriously considering running.

Previously, two other Republicans – Air Force reservist and security consultant Eric Egland and former Auburn Mayor Mike Holmes – said they would run, and state Assemblyman Ted Gaines, R-Roseville, formed an exploratory committee.

Doolittle narrowly defeated Democrat Charlie Brown, who is now running again, in 2006.

On Thursday, Doolittle announced his decision "to complete my term and ... retire" by quoting from the New Testament.

Saying he made his decision after "much prayer and deliberation," Doolittle said: "This circumstance reminds me of a passage in the 2nd letter of St. Paul to Timothy – 'The time has come for my departure. I have fought the good fight. I have finished the race. I have kept the faith.'"

Doolittle met with supporters who gathered for a closed meeting Thursday at the Maidu Community Center in Roseville. He later announced his decision to reporters, describing a recent epiphany he had in a conversation with his wife, Julie.

"I said to her, 'You know I don't mind risking losing an election ... but I really don't like the idea of winning the election and being obligated to serve for two more years," Doolittle said. He added: "Once that came out of my mouth, it was a revelation. I knew the decision was made not to run again."

First elected in 1980 to the California Senate, where he quickly established himself as a feisty conservative who thrived on rough-and-tumble politics, Doolittle was elected to a congressional seat vacated by retiring Rep. Norm Shumway.

Doolittle gained a reputation as a reformer, helping blow the whistle on the House bank scandal that contributed heavily to the Republicans' sweeping takeover of the House in the 1994 elections.

He aligned himself with Rep. Tom DeLay of Texas, who later became House Republican leader and rewarded Doolittle with a prized seat on the House Appropriations Committee in 2001.

That brought him into the Republican inner circle where lobbyist Abramoff was a star. His friendship with Abramoff, who employed Doolittle's wife, Julie, created a cloud of scandal after Abramoff's guilty plea to conspiracy, bribery and tax charges.

Doolittle received more than $140,000 in campaign contributions from Abramoff, his associates and clients. In addition, Abramoff paid about $67,000 between September 2002 and February 2004 to to Julie Doolittle's company, Sierra Dominion Financial Services, that he hired to organize a charity fundraiser. Some $40,000 was paid to Julie Doolittle after the event was canceled.

Last year, the FBI raided Doolittle's Virginia home and issued subpoenas to Doolittle and five staff members in a probe of the congressman and his wife's fundraising business. Doolittle asserted his innocence, and complained vigorously as the investigation dragged on.

His attorney, David Barger, said in an interview Thursday that "there have been no new developments in this investigation that prompted his retirement."

Stanley M. Brand, a Washington, D.C., attorney who has defended dozens of public figures charged with corruption, said he has never seen a case in which retirement was accepted in exchange for dropping a prosecution.

"There's great sensitivity to prosecutorial power...," Brand said. "They have not been swayed one way or another by elections."

Sen. Sam Aanestad, R-Penn Valley, praised Doolittle "as a stalwart for getting things done for rural California." But he complained that the FBI's failure to conclude its highly publicized investigation of Doolittle created a "cloud" that "started affecting the political process."

Oller, a vocal Doolittle defender, said the congressman called him Wednesday night to inform him of his decision. Oller issued a press release Thursday announcing his candidacy.

"He knew all along if he stepped down I was running," Oller said in an interview. "He's been a great conservative leader for a lot of years."

Ose, who served three terms in Congress in the neighboring 3rd District now led by Republican Dan Lungren, declined to say he would run.

"I don't want to dance on John's grave today. This is John's day," Ose said. "Why don't we just pay him some respect today and take some time to think about this?"

But his longtime political consultant, Richard Temple, said Ose is "taking a look at it. Obviously, we have to decide soon."

Gaines, who announced in August he was forming a campaign committee, hedged his bets Thursday. "The priority in my mind was that we had good candidates ... and that we could elect another good conservative Republican.

"I want to see who those candidates are before I make a final decision," he said.

Brown applauded Doolittle's decision to step down. "I believe John did the right thing today for his family, for the 4th District and for America. Now is the time to unite as Americans," he said in a statement.

"We can finally move beyond scandal and return to talking about the issues," said Egland, who appeared in a Doolittle campaign commercial in 2006 before announcing last year he would run against him. "I wish the Doolittle family well."

Doolittle said he doesn't plan to endorse a successor but will support the Republican primary winner.

Tim Ransdell, executive director of the California Institute for Federal Policy Research, said the state will feel Doolittle's departure as one of only six Californians on the Appropriations Committee, a critical panel with authority over federal spending.

Doolittle temporarily stepped down from the committee after his home was raided by federal agents in April but nonetheless pushed through 28 "earmark" spending requests last year.

Placer County Supervisor Bruce Kranz praised Doolittle Thursday for securing a $500,000 grant for an alternative fuel facility in the Tahoe basin. "He (Doolittle) has made no excuses about earmarks," Kranz said. "He was going to represent his district and bring things home."

Doolittle obtained $71 million to widen Interstate 80 to relieve a traffic bottleneck, $7 million in federal money to help fund a Highway 65 bypass around Lincoln and millions more for a regional waste water treatment plant and pumps in the American River to provide water for Placer County.

He advocated tirelessly, though fruitlessly, for a multipurpose dam at Auburn. And he held power in his sprawling district with an old-fashioned political machine, contributing money from his political committees to elect county supervisors, community college trustee and local Republican committee members.

In Washington, he also helped Abramoff and the lobbyist's clients. He wrote letters for various Indian tribes and played a role in renewing Abramoff's lucrative lobbying contract with the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands.

And he used his appropriations seat to write a $37 million earmark for a Defense Department contract with Brent Wilkes, a San Diego businessman later convicted of conspiring to bribe former Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham.

Wilkes helped steer contributions to Doolittle. In 2005, Wilkes' private jet was used to ferry Rep. DeLay and a group of lobbyists to a Doolittle fundraiser at the Venetian Resort Hotel in Las Vegas.

On Thursday, Doolittle said he was happy be retiring.

"I can just tell you that I am one of the lucky people who got to do what I loved and got paid for it," he said. But said he grew tired of the job and "I stopped loving it."

Doolittle said Thursday he hopes to move back to California after his daughter finishes high school but has no idea what his next career move will be.

"I know what I don't want to be doing," he said. "I announced that today. Everything else is on the table."