A Different Conservative Perspective On Possible McClintock For Congress Campaign
Posted by: Jubal | 02/27/2008 5:43 PM
The precincts of the greater Sacramento region are a-buzz with talk of an impending decision by State Sen. Tom McClintock to jump into the race for the 4th Congressional District, which is wide open in the wake of Rep. John Dootlittle's decision not to seek re-election.OK, this isn't an Orange County issue. However, given McClintock's wide appeal among OC conservatives I thought our readers would find this column by former OC resident, Red County/Placer editor and Schubert Flint Public Affairs partner Jeff Flint to be thought provoking:
Both FlashReport editor Jon Fleischman and I have written, in acknowledgement of political reality, that Tom McClintock's popularity among conservative activists, high statewide name ID for previous runs, and obvious leadership on many issues, means that Tom could probably move to any district in California and win a GOP primary.You can read the whole post here.
But that doesn't mean he should.
As we all know, Tom represents a Ventura County-based State Senate district in the legislature. Most also know that his family has long lived with him in the greater Sacramento region, including in Placer County for a period of time.
He has run for statewide office three times, losing narrowly twice. And I would certainly be remiss if I did not acknowledge his leadership on a whole host of conservative public policy issues. He's been a champion of lower taxes, fiscal restraint, eliminating waste from government, property rights, and more. Every legislator votes thousands of times, and I could comb through his long public record and find votes with which I disagree, but that would be a trivial exercise. Tom McClintock is a leading, perhaps the leading, conservative public policy figure in California.
All of which is entirely irrelevant to whether he should run for Congress in the 4th District, and whether we should welcome him as if he is doing us a favor.
And that's what bothers me about so much of this. The perception, at least, of an attitude from the McClintock camp that we should all be overjoyed about his likely entry in this race.
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Mr. Ayer registered as a Republican to be electable in an interim election with no incumbents. He did...
I totally disagree with Jeff's take. Washington DC sorely needs someone of the caliber of Tom McClintock. So what if he's tehnically not from the district. There is no residency requirement that he live there. Anyways he's lived in the area for a long time since he's he's been in the legislature.
The important thing is that he will go to DC with his tried and true real Republican message of smaller government instead of the crap we've been getting from most of our Republican DC reps.
Tom McClintock has been a great leader for our good conservative republicans and we are here to support him........yes, all the way up to DC.
Wow, I need to put a new photo on the sfpa website. I got the laser surgery on my eyes 18 months ago, I forgot what I looked like with glasses.
Matt, I appreciate the bump on the posting.
Allan et al, I think you missed my point. I gave all due deference to everything Tom has led on. It's not really about the carpet bagging issue...because Rico Oller doesn't live in the district either and he is my choice.
I know I am not the only one who is troubled by Tom's unwillingness to get out of the public sector. And obviously I have never been an elected member of the legislature, but I was a senior staffer trying to advance conservative policy, and I just have to tell you that working with Tom to advance the cause, as a team, is challenging. Team ball is not Tom's game.
And to be clear, I don't mean by team play to blindly follow the leadership.
Don't get me wrong, I also deal in reality. It is a near certain thing that Tom is getting in the race and Oller is getting out. If my choice as a voter in the district is a conservative like McClintock and a moderate like Ose, I will be voting for Tom.
GOP "team play" in DC got us in the mess we are in right now. I don't think it's all it's cracked up to be Jeff. The Titanic Crew played team ball to and, well we know what happened to them. I know what the record is of the recent all GOP majority is and it ain't very pretty from a smaller constitutional government perspective.
For those who have had the opportunity of working direclty with Sen. McClintock it is easy to understand the loyalty.
This should be a no brainer. Sen. McClintock will bring a SOLID history of conservative values to DC that will benifit the entire state. He may be running in the 4th but the decisions he makes will be felt far beyond that.
The only donwside to this is I was really holding out for a run against Villaragosa for the Gov slot.
Go Tom!
Richard Rios
McClintock is a good candidate, but whether he can draw significant libertarian support remains to be seen.
http://www.jeffwartman.com/2008/03/tom-mcclintock-running-for-congress.html