GOP Primary For Doolittle Seat Turning Expensive

The Republican race to succeed retiring Rep. John Doolittle (R-Calif.), pitting former congressman Doug Ose against state senator Tom McClintock, is shaping up to be an expensive campaign.

Ose triggered the Millionaire’s Amendment Tuesday after loaning his campaign $649,000 in the last two days. He now has spent a total of $849,000 of his own money on the campaign. (The Millionaire’s Amendment loosens the fundraising restrictions for opponents facing self-funded candidates.)

Some of those campaign funds have been used to air a new ad attacking McClintock as a “carpetbagger,” accusing the term-limited state senator of “shopping for a new job.”

And McClintock, highly-regarded among California conservatives, today received his own endorsement from the anti-tax Club for Growth. The endorsement raises the likelihood that the Club will fund its own advertising campaign attacking Ose’s legislative record.

“If elected to Congress, taxpayers can count on McClintock to fight for an end to wasteful government spending, lower taxes, and less government regulation, just as he did in the California Legislature,” said Club for Growth Pat Toomey in a statement. “Tom McClintock has the potential to be a star in Congress.”

The June 3 primary is shaping up to be a clash between GOP moderates and conservatives. At the candidates’ first debate, McClintock said Ose was part of the "Republican Congress that voted for the biggest entitlements since the Great Society,” according to the Sacramento Bee.
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