The Auburn Augur
Joe Carroll
Joe Carroll's Auburn Augur column, a Sentinel staple for years, focuses on politics at all levels -- and plenty of other things. Even the politicians who get skewered in his often irreverent pieces respect him as an old time newsman who knows his stuff. In addition to newspaper experience in San Francisco and Placer County, Joe spent 15 years as a state legislative aide, working for both Republicans and Democrats. He describes many politicians as "people who shake your hand before the election and your confidence afterward."
Percolating Placer Politics
Written by Joe Carroll
Tuesday, 31 July 2007
POLITICAL PALAVER — Show no surprise when Auburn’s Mike Holmes makes it official within the next month that he’ll be seeking to knock off Congressman John Taylor Doolittle in next June’s primary election. No more of that exploratory committee hoopla for Capt. Holmes. There’s been quite a show of interest in his candidacy in recent weeks — notably from Placer, Nevada and Butte counties — and it’s been so encouraging that Holmes and his advisors figure that he’d better quit playing around and go for the real thing. After all, only a guy who’s announced that his candidacy is for real can start asking for campaign contributions. Mike wasn’t fazed a bit with the recent announcement of a young Roseville chap, Eric Egland, that he’ll take a whack at JTD next June. Egland said in an interview with the Bee’s David Whitney, "If John Doolittle is the nominee, we will surrender our conservative voice in Washington, D.C. for a generation." Holmes told Whitney that he views Egland, who says he’s a security consultant, as a one-issue fellow, with the one issue being support of the war in Iraq.
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Placer’s Political Palaver
Written by Joe Carroll
Tuesday, 24 July 2007
HOLMES ON THE RANGE — Leave it to hometown lad Mike Holmes to stir the pot. A lot of us Holmes fans who’ve been encouraging him to tackle blackguard J.T. Doolittle in next year’s primary election were delighted to hear that he’s taken a step in that direction by forming one of those “exploratory committees.” The idea of such a panel is to gauge if there are enough pro-Holmes/anti-Doolittle Republicans out there to warrant a formal campaign. Money, of course, is a huge factor. Doolittle outspent Holmes 10 to 1 (at least) in the 2006 primary that the nine-term incumbent won by a 2-to-1 margin. But the pickings are slimmer for JTD this time, with or without the outcome of the U.S. Department of Justice investigation into the sweetheart deals he and his wife made with crooked lobbyist Jack Abramoff.
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Plausive Placer Politics
Written by Joe Carroll
Wednesday, 18 July 2007
DOOLITTLE DOINGS – If our congressman were to opt not to seek a 10th term next year or get defeated if he does run, his annual pension would amount to as much as $64,000. I gathered this much after reading a recent article published by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW).
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Prosecutor of the Year
Written by Joe Caroll
Wednesday, 11 July 2007
PROSECUTOR OF THE YEAR Garen Horst is pictured with some members of the team who helped him put together the case against Mario F. Garcia, the North Auburn man now serving a 59 years-to-life state prison term for the murder of Christie Wilson in October of 2005. From the left, they’re Investigator Dave Koppin, Senior Deputy DA Scott Owens, Deputy DA Stephanie Macumber, Horst, Chief Investigator Joe Bertoni and, of course, District Attorney Brad R. Fenocchio. In the courtroom, Garen’s a tiger. Outside the courtroom, he’s a pussycat. (Really?)
Doolittle Doings (Chapter X, Verses 5-24)
Written by Joe Caroll
Wednesday, 11 July 2007
DOOLITTLE DOINGS (Chapter X, Verses 5-24) -- When the going gets tough, the tough get going, or so said Nixon Administration Attorney General John Mitchell as he was being led off to jail for obstruction of justice more than three decades ago. Let me hasten to say that our Congressman John T. Doolittle has not been indicted, arrested or jailed for anything, yet I thought of old John Mitchell the other day when I read in the Bee that JTD has joined the growing list of Republican lawmakers who are either abandoning or going soft on President Bush’s Iraq War. Our John’s taken to calling the war a “quagmire” and suggesting that “we get off the front lines as soon as possible.”
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Doolittle Doings
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