HOLMES BOYS ON THE RANGE (AGAIN!) — Sunday’s Veterans Day Parade through Downtown Auburn was light on elected officials (thank goodness), but among the handful of pols who did show up were brothers Jim and Mike Holmes, who were seated aboard a spanking new red Mustang loaned for the occasion by Maita Ford and driven by Pat Lyons, with Linda Haggins as co-pilot, and here’s a photo of ‘em.
 Jim and Mike Holmes |
Next year will be a big one for the Holmes lads. Mike, the top winner
in last November’s city council election, is taking a second shot at
J.T. Doolittle for the GOP nod in the 4th Congressional District, and
at this point it looks like he might be facing not only the incumbent
but some others who might include rookie Assemblyman Ted Gaines, who’s
being likened to Judas Iscariot by JTD loyalists these days for even
threatening to run against his mentor. Brother Jim will also be on the
June primary election ballot as he runs for a second term on the Placer
County Board of Supervisors. Pay no attention to the far-out rumors
that far-right hotshots are looking for someone to oppose him. At this
point in his political career Jim Holmes is unbeatable. (And back to
Sunday’s event for a few secs. It was the best patriotic parade I’ve
seen in Auburn in decades. I was particularly taken by the bunch of
Vietnam War veterans and the old devil-dogs from the Marine Corps
League. The Navy League unit was pretty spiffy, too, especially with an
attractive retired rear admiral leading it. And the kids from the
Placer County Office of Education’s Alder Grove Academy, wearing GI
fatigues, looked terrific, too. The folks who planned the parade
deserve hearty pats on their backs.)...This just in: The Placer County
Council of the Navy League’s monthly dinner meeting will be held this
coming Monday the 19th in Auburn Veterans Memorial Hall, starting at 6
p.m. Mike Holmes says the guest of honor will be Bill Sharkey, the Navy
League’s area president who’ll install the local council’s new
officers. The public is invited and you can pay the $12 tariff at the
door. Call that attractive admiral (Bonnie Potter) at (530) 823-2820
for more information.* * * POLITICAL POTPOURRI – Fifth District Supervisor Bruce Kranz will be up
for re-election to a second term in June, too, and it remains to be
seen if he’ll have viable opposition. His critics already have one
possible candidate (Jennifer Montgomery of Serene Lakes) and are said
to be in the market for others. Kranz’s vote in support of the
Chevreaux asphalt plant might well have cost him a lot of Meadow Vista
votes, but from the look of the turnout at last week’s hearing, most of
them probably didn’t vote for him in 2005 when he defeated MV’s Rex
Bloomfield, who’d been the District 5 board member for a dozen years.
Bruce also rankled some real estate interests on Tahoe’s north and west
shores by rebuffing their slick lobbyist-flak two weeks ago and
refusing to delay enactment of the county’s fire hazard prevention
ordinance of which he was the principal author. And, of course, there’s
the fact that his campaign has already taken at least $15,000 in
contributions from the gents who want to put up a monstrous development
near Donner Summit and need the board of supervisors’ permission to do
so. And to all this please add the fact that Bruce’s friend and
benefactor, embattled Rep. J.T. Doolittle, won’t have the megabucks —
and maybe not even the loyal contacts — to bankroll a Re-Elect Kranz
campaign as he’s done in the past. Say what you will about Kranz, at
least you know where the gent’s coming from. I’ve known him for more
than 20 years and he’s never talked out of both sides of his mouth, at
least not to me....Kranz toyed with the idea of running next June for
the GOP nomination in the 3rd Assembly District and ended up scratching
it, particularly after the aforementioned Assembly Ted Gaines
reportedly declined to back such a candidacy. (Don’t invite Bruce and
Ted to the same pizza party. Kranz views Ted’s congressional ambitions
as the worst kind of disloyalty. Every electoral success Gaines has
enjoyed is due to the Doolittle organization.)...The board of
supervisors’ District 4 seat will also be in play next June. Kirk
Uhler, who was appointed to the seat earlier this year after Gaines
went to the Legislature, should have no trouble getting elected on his
own, especially now that Granite Bay’s Sandy Harris says she’s
definitely not a candidate. At least that’s what Sandy told me Tuesday
when she was in Auburn to witness the Republicans for Environmental
Protection’s endorsement of Mike Holmes for Congress. Support from this
grassroots, nonprofit GOP outfit could well bring lots of campaign
contributions for Mike from all over the country. (REP, as it’s called,
has chapters in 49 states and is still looking for somebody to start
one in North Dakota, in case you’re interested.) * * * ROUNDABOUT – Rep. Doolittle did indeed receive a warm welcome when he
stood up to address last weekend’s state convention of the California
Republican Assembly, an ultra-conservative outfit that has backed him
every race he’s ever been in and, I presume, will again if he stays
with his re-election plans for next year. The congressman was
introduced by T. Rico Oller, the former state legislator whose dirty
tricks helped him win an Assembly seat over Kirk Uhler in 1996 and who
is being touted in some quarters as a possible congressional candidate
in the event Doolittle changes his mind (or has it changed for him by
the U.S. Justice Department) and doesn’t run again. Yeah, I know, Oller
lives down in Calaveras County, which is not in the 4th C.D., but this
is no barrier to declaring for a congressional seat (you need only be a
state resident to run). Ted Gaines was also in attendance as was Eric
Egland, the Air Force reservist who, like Mike Holmes, is an announced
candidate for the GOP congressional nomination, with or without JTD on
the ballot. Holmes was nowhere in sight; the California Republican
Assembly and he don’t see eye to eye on a number of matters. The Bee’s
Peter Hecht gave Roseville’s Aaron Park, the best blogger conservative
Republicans ever fielded in this neck of the woods, credit for some of
the convention’s best lines. He quoted Park as saying that Doolittle is
supported by “an overwhelming number of (4th C.D.) city council members
and all members of the Legislature not named Ted Gaines.” As for
Egland, Park said he’s trying to “run to the right of Doolittle and
there’s very little real estate there.”
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