'Brown Plans to Run Again' - Hooray!

Brown plans to run again

By: Gus Thomson, Journal Staff Writer

After giving U.S. Rep. John Doolittle a serious run for his money in the Nov. 7 election, Democratic Party challenger Charlie Brown plans to keep the momentum up for a second bid at the Fourth Congressional District seat.

"Unless things change, I expect to be on the next ballot, whether that's in two years' time or sooner," Brown said.

Doolittle's run for a ninth term was clouded by connections to lobbyist Jack Abramoff, an association the congressman said was a friendship but involved no illegal lobbying activities. Abramoff reported to prison Wednesday to serve a six-year term for fraud and is awaiting sentencing on a Washington, D.C. public corruption case.

With Doolittle having accepted campaign money from Abramoff and used the lobbyist's luxury sports box for a fundraiser without initially reporting it, Brown said the potential is there for the congressman to be indicted and therefore leaving office before the 2006 presidential election. Doolittle has said he's expecting the end result of the Abramoff scandal will see his name cleared.

With the election just more than a week old, Brown said he's already been to two Veterans Day ceremonies, a Veterans Day parade, a Democratic central committee meeting and is in the process of completing his campaign funding filing information.

Brown said he also dropped into the offices of his former employer - the Roseville Police Department - and might be doing some volunteer work with the force. A retired U.S. Air Force lieutenant colonel, Brown resigned from records work to devote his full attention to the congressional race after defeating two candidates for the Democratic Party nomination last June.

While declining to be specific, Brown said that "other opportunities" were presenting themselves as he worked to tie up election-related loose ends.

Brown, who spent 26 years in the Air Force, characterized the election as one battle, with more to be fought. With several thousand provisional and late-absentee ballots to be counted Brown trails Doolittle 97,705 votes to 105,525. Brown conceded the election to Doolittle on election night but expressed the hope that he'll have chipped away at the congressman's percentage when the official count is declared. Brown's percentage of the vote now stands at 45.6 percent while Doolittle's is 49.4 percent - his lowest in nine congressional elections.

Doolittle's previous worst showing was in 1992 when he polled 49.81 percent of the vote in a rematch with Lincoln Democrat Pat Malberg. Brown's percentage is expected to be the highest for a Democrat since Malberg garnered 45.7 percent of the vote in the same election.

"It's been encouraging - the amount of enthusiasm generated by people not involved in politics hasn't been seen since Pat Malberg ran," Brown said. "A lot of people don't want to go back to sitting around the house being spectators. People have found out they can be involved."

Final filings should show the Brown campaign raised and spent $1.6 million. Doolittle spent more than $2 million. Brown said he'll emerge from the campaign relatively unscathed financially, having contributed some money to the election, but sticking to a budget.

"It's part of my whole conservative approach to financing - to live within a budget," Brown said. "I certainly expect we'll see Congress get back to that. It won't happen overnight but it's something to be working toward.

Brown's right-hand handler on the campaign trail - Todd Stenhouse - was married last weekend and returns to his fund-raising role with the National Veteran's Foundation. Brown said the two had known each other before the election while working on veterans issues.

One of the biggest surprises in the past election was the rise of an organization - Republicans for Brown - who showed their support for the Democrat. Auburn's Joanne Neft, one of the group's leaders, said the group would move into a mode of support for a new Republican challenger if Doolittle continues on a course of which many Republicans disapprove. The group broke the chain of fear for many Republicans who were hesitant to break ranks and disagree with Doolittle and some Republican leaders, she said.

"I've received oodles of e-mails of folks eager to keep doing the work," Neft said. "It gave us permission to openly express ourselves."

From a GOP perspective, Neft said she's thrilled that Doolittle is expressing a new resolve to maintain personal ties with the district.

"I've been actively involved in this district since 1980 and only once have I ever seen him in a non-political environment," Neft said. "I'm going to see whether it happens."

The Journal's Gus Thomson can be reached at gust@goldcountrymedia.com.