Doolittle defeats Brown

Many, many people around these parts cheered when they got word that Rep. John Doolittle was voluntarily retiring at the end of his term and bowing out of the 2008 congressional race.

But Upfront figures at least some Democrats would have preferred that he stick it out. Take, for instance, Charlie Brown, who came within three points of beating Doolittle in 2006.

Wouldn’t Brown rather face Doolittle than a unified Republican party backing a less scandal-tainted GOP nominee?

CSUS smarty-pants Dr. Barbara O’Connor, who successfully predicted the end of Doolittle’s reign in our predictions feature a couple of weeks back (see “Seeing things,” SN&R Feature Story, January 3), thinks so.

It’s still anybody’s call, but, O’Connor notes, “His best hope was having Doolittle to run against. If I was Charlie Brown, I would be very sad.” Awwww. Now Upfront is sad, too.

But Brown spokesman Todd Stenhouse says Doolittle’s resignation doesn’t change a thing. “It’s never been a campaign against John Doolittle. It’s always been a campaign to put patriotism before partisanship.”

OK, but do you really expect Brown’s campaign to admit that the fighting Dem just lost his best friend in the race for the 4th CD?