CA-04: Tom McClintock's Ku Klux Klan Problem

by Todd Beeton [courtesy of MyDD]

David Dayen has some breaking news over at Calitics. Turns out Tom McClintock, carpetbagger opponent of Democratic candidate Lt. Col. Charlie Brown in CA-04 who is currently a State Senator in a district that runs from the LA suburbs to Santa Barbara County, is running for congress in a district hundreds of miles away up in the northeast corner of the state and has run for two previous statewide offices unsuccessfully including for governor in the 2003 recall, was actually endorsed for governor 5 years ago by none other than the Ku Klux Klan. Check out this endorsement:

Dateline: September 27, 2003

Ku Klux Klan Announces support for Tom McClintock

The Imperial Klans of America, Knights of the Ku Klux Klan (IKA) have announced their full support for Tom
McClintock's bid for the governorship of California. Their support is announced in what they term "the
lesser of all evil candidates."

When interviewed, Mr. Chris Johnson (Grand Dragon or State Director of the IKA's California chapter) had this to say regarding the announcement, "While Mr. McClintock is not the perfect candidate for California Governor, we have more in common with his ideology than any of the other candidates. We are in congruence with his stand on illegal aliens infecting our land and his courage in standing up to the invasion." Mr. Johnson went on to say that, "Mr. McClintock echoes our anti-abortion stand, and our opposition to oppressive taxation."

Haha. Well, this isn't a terribly enthusiastic endorsement, is it? But you gotta love their reasoning behind settling on McClintock: "we have more in common with his ideology than any of the other candidates." Pretty much says it all.

CA-04 is a really red district with a PVI of R+11. Charlie almost took corrupt congressman John Doolittle out last cycle but lost by a mere 3%. Charlie is one of several great 2nd chance candidates we have this year.

At first, the revelation that Doolittle would be retiring after this term was a disappointing turn of events but Brown I think lucked out by getting McClintock, perrenial candidate for whatever office opens up (and in fact he has accounts for two runs for office in 2010 still open) as his opponent. Sure he has name recognition but what he's best known for is being a loser. Also, over these past two cycles Charlie has made a credible case for himself as a Democrat in a red district, so much so that the latest Research 2000/DKos poll has him leading McClintock by 5.

I told my Republican uncle about the poll last night and he was shocked. He lives up in CA-04 and he's been telling me since 06 how Charlie has no shot because the 4th is so reliably red that anyone with an R next to his name will win. It's looking as though he may just be proven wrong.

Let's give Charlie some love so McClintock can be free to focus on his 2010 run for Board of Equalization.