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OLD PROS — I ran into a batch of friends from yesteryear at the Placer County Water Agency’s golden anniversary shindig and among them were the two gents pictured here, Bob Mahan, left, and Paul Lunardi. Bob gave up his seat on the county board of education in 1966 and got elected to the Placer County Board of Supervisors, where he spent the next 24 years before deciding to hang ‘em up. Paul was the baby-faced mayor of Roseville back in 1958 when he was elected to the State Assembly and, in late 1964, a state senator, succeeding the late Ron Cameron who had accepted a judicial appointment from Governor Pat Brown. Paul went on to spend more than a quarter-century with the California Wine Institute, the lucky stiff. Lots of “longtime, no see” greetings at the PCWA gathering.
Bill Briner, a terrific District 5 supervisor in the ’60s and early
’70s and later Governor Reagan’s appointee as chief deputy director of
state parks and recreation, was on hand and looking two decades younger
than 81. Bill Grant, the agency’s very able general manager back in the
’80s, looked terrific (thanks to those two-mile morning walks, I
presume). Ditto retired Bee newsie Bill Wilson, who began covering the
PCWA in its infancy, looked great, too. Old time supervisors like Alex
Ferreira and Mike Lee are now veteran PCWA directors and looking
younger than their years (they are?). In any case, it was a swell
get-together and I especially want to thank Board Chairman Lowell
Jarvis and GM Dave Breninger for seeing to it that Bruce McCreary, the
bloke who pushed the idea of building the Middle Fork American River
project at no expense to the taxpayers as well as a friend of mine for
nearly 50 years, was given a long overdue salute.
* * *
DOOLITTLE DRIPPINGS — The word is out that Congressman John T.
Doolittle will try to attend all wakes, weddings and even bar mitzvahs
in the 4th C.D. now that he’s a target of federal corruption
investigators and wants to be liked. The congressman, who’ll turn 57
next month (and still looks about 35), was present at the PCWA event,
with his protégé Supervisor Bruce Kranz introducing him all around.
Kranz is a Doolittle loyalist to the core and hell will freeze over
before he turns on his mentor. Despite his woes, John appears relaxed
and almost happy these days after looking semi-constipated for the past
27 years. Rookie Assemblyman Ted Gaines did not attend the PCWA party,
prompting several people to opine that Ted probably was afraid to face
his former political godfather after saying all those unkind things
about him while announcing that he might run for the 4th C.D. seat
himself next year. Not true, said young Adam Willoughby, Ted’s field
representative who attended the event in place of his boss. Adam said
Gaines was unable to come because he’s caught a bad cold from one or
more of his six young children.
* * *
REST ASSURED that the Doolittle backers aren’t taking Gaines’s possible
congressional candidacy lightly. They’ve launched a website called
dontdraftted.com and are letting the freshman state lawmaker have it
right between the eyes with shots like these: “Ted Gaines is not a
career politician, but he aspires to become one. ... Ted Gaines is in
office largely due to the support of John Doolittle and would not even
be in a position to run for Congress without John. ... None of John
Doolittle’s legislative endorsements have changed over to Ted nor have
any of the locally-elected endorsers...” The pro-JTD folks also urge
Ted and any other possible GOP opponents (Mike Holmes, Eric Egland and
that blowhard radio commentator Tom Sullivan come to mind) to back off
and let John run for a 10th term. There’s no mention of the Department
of Justice’s investigation of Doolittle and his wife Julie and their
close ties to crooked lobbyist Jack Abramoff, who’s now doing hard time
in a federal pen and reportedly ratting out a bunch of his former
business associates. Gaines is also taken to task by a Rocklin blogger
known as JetJock, who somehow reminds me of my old pal the Cool Cat.
JetJock hits hard on Ted for meddling in the 2006 Rocklin School Board
election and for accepting the $135 per diem payment from the Assembly
despite residing 30 minutes from the State Capitol. JetJock claims the
per diem money adds up to $35,000 a year on top of the legislator’s
$120,000 annual salary. Okay, are you ready for this? I’ll bet a cold
brewskie in Old Town’s California Club that unless JTD is charged with
anything, we won’t be hearing from Mr. Gaines. In fact, I’ll even wager
that Ted, who was already in trouble with the far-right for chairing
Rudy Giuliani’s “family values” presidential campaign in Placer County,
will soon announce that he was only kidding and that he intends to run
for a second Assembly term next year.
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