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Additional
support
For 3rd district candidates
By
Sean Rabé
Amador
Ledger Dispatch
Several
candidates vying for the Republican nomination for
California
’s 3rd Congressional District seat have announced key
endorsements in the past weeks.
Among those endorsements is the National Rifle
Association’s (NRA) endorsement of current State Senator
Rico Oller (R-San Andreas).
Oller is one of four candidates vying for the Republican
nomination in the March Primary for the seat of retiring
Congressman Doug Ose, who announced in May he would not seek
re-election. Also in the race is
Sacramento
businesswoman Mary Ose (the sister of the incumbent), former
California Attorney General Dan Lungren and Richard
Frankhuizen.
Oller announced the endorsement of the NRA earlier this
month.
“Rico Oller is the clear choice for gun owners in
California
’s 3rd district,” said NRA’s Chief Lobbyist Chris Cox
via press release. “Senator Oller is a strong advocate of
hunters, sportsmen and all who believe in the right of
law-abiding citizens to own firearms. We urge all
law-abiding gunowners to support him at the polls.”
Also adding surprising support to Oller’s campaign was
former California Chief Deputy Attorney General, State
Assemblyman and 1998 GOP Attorney General nominee Dave
Stirling.
Stirling
served as Lungren’s chief assistant attorney general.
“Rico Oller is the type of no-nonsense crime fighter that
we want to send back to
Washington
,”
Stirling
said via press release.
Additionally, Oller has been endorsed by Congressmen John
Doolittle, Wally Herger, Richard Pombo and George Radanovich.
Republican Assembly Leader Dave Cox, who is seeking the seat
to be vacated by Oller, has also endorsed the senator.
“Rico Oller is a conservative tax cutter who has become
one of our most outspoken leaders in
Sacramento
,” Cox said. “Rico Oller’s business experience, local
roots and rock-solid conservative credentials made it easy
to support him.”
Oller has a slew of state and local officials adding their
names to his endorsement list as well. Fourteen state
senators and 24 state assemblymen have supported his
campaign, as well as the majority of the Alpine, Amador and
Calaveras county supervisors. Additionally, the majority of
city council members from Angels Camp, Elk Grove, Folsom,
Galt, Ione,
Rancho Cordova
and Sutter Creek have lent their support as well.
He has also been endorsed by the California Republican
Assembly, the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, the
California Taxpayers Protection Committee, the Club for
Growth, the Concerned Women of America and the Young
Republican federation of
California
, among other groups and individuals.
Not to be outdone, however, Lungren has announced several
key endorsements.
Folsom Mayor Steve Miklos listened to his own drummer and
has lent support to Lungren’s campaign. “We here in
Folsom know Dan Lungren extremely well and count him as a
reliable friend,” Miklos said in a press release. “We
were constantly calling on Dan for assistance and he was
always willing to help, whether it was working with the
Department of Corrections and Folsom Prison issues or
helping to get the road open after the gate failure in
1995.”
A number of Congressional committee officers have endorsed
Lungren’s campaign as well, including Congressman David
Dreir (Chairman of the House Rules Committee), Congressman
Henry Hyde (Chairman of the House International Relations
Committee) and Congresswoman Jennifer Dunn (Vice-chair of
the Select Committee on Homeland Security).
A number of local officials have pledged support to Lungren,
including Amador County District Attorney Todd Riebe and
Amador County Sheriff Mike Prizmich.
“Dan Lungren has a proven track record of getting things
done,” Prizmich said. “As Attorney General he didn’t
complain about being in the minority party, he just rolled
up his sleeves and went to work for us. Here in
Amador
County
we respect people who don’t just talk the talk.”
Riebe agreed. “When Dan Lungren was Attorney General,
crime in
California
plummeted by more than 35 percent,” he said. “That
didn’t happen by accident, it took leadership.”
In addition to Riebe and Prizmich, Lungren has picked up
several other 3rd district law enforcement endorsements as
well.
Sacramento
County
’s district attorney, sheriff and undersheriff have
endorsed Lungren, as has
Solano
County
’s Sheriff Gary Stanton. He has also been endorsed by the
father of the three strikes law Mike Reynolds.
Further adding their names to Lungren’s endorsements are
the district attorneys of eight
California
counties, nine sheriffs and 18 police chiefs.
Mary Ose, who announced her candidacy in early December, has
also announced a significant endorsement. She has picked up
the support of the Republican Main Street Partnership (RMSP);
a coalition of fiscally conservative Republicans who share
mainstream Republican values.
“Mary Ose is not a career politician,” said RMSP
Executive Director Sarah Chamberlain Resnick. “She will be
a reliable voice for lower taxes, eliminating government
waste and reducing the budget deficit.”
California
’s 3rd Congressional District stretches across the
Sacramento
Valley
and runs to the
Nevada
border, taking in all of Alpine, Amador and
Calaveras
Counties
, all of the rural portions of
Sacramento
County
and a small portion of
Solano
County
. The district’s current voter registration comes in at 44
percent Republican, 38 percent Democrat.
Mary Ose is a
Sacramento
businesswoman and community volunteer. She called herself a
“rock-solid fiscal conservative and no-nonsense budget
cutter,” in a news release issued to the Ledger Dispatch.
Her priorities would be fighting government waste and
inefficiency, protecting
America
against terrorism and pushing for long-range financial
planning in Congress instead of year-to-year budgeting,
according to the release.
Lungren served eight years as
California
’s Attorney General under then Governor Pete Wilson. Prior
to that office he served for 10 years in Congress for
another
California
district. He also ran against Gov. Gray Davis in an
unsuccessful gubernatorial bid in 1998.
Oller describes himself as a conservative Republican who is
strongly pro-life and pro-Second Amendment and is a 20-year
owner of a construction materials business. “Burdensome
taxes, high energy costs, skyrocketing worker’s
compensation insurance rates and a swamp of complicated
regulations are killing
California
’s jobs,” he recently said via news release. He was
elected to the state assembly in 1996 and served two terms
until being elected state Senator in November 2000.
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