NRCC

The National Republican Congressional Committee is not ceding the 4th Congressional District race, paying to air and broadcast a new commercial for state Sen. Tom McClintock (R-Thousand Oaks) in his race with Roseville Democrat Charlie Brown.

The commercial, which will run on TV and radio, paints Brown as a liberal aligned with U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco), willing to do her bidding if elected.

WASHINGTON – National Republican Congressional Committee chair Tom Cole is set to launch a three-week national tour of competitive house races, beginning with stops in two hotly contested districts in California.

While the schedule is still tentative, according to an NRCC source familiar with the plans, the trip will bring Cole to California’s 11th and 4th Congressional Districts on Oct. 2 and Oct. 3, respectively. The 11th district matchup features Republican Dean Andal challenging U.S. Rep. Jerry McNerney (D-Stockton), while Republican Tom McClintock is battling Democrat Charlie Brown in the 4th district.

Cole, a third term congressman from Oklahoma who is in his first stint as the GOP House campaign chief, is a top fundraising draw for House candidates across the country.

WASHINGTON – Republican U.S. House candidate Tom McClintock said in an interview Tuesday evening that his campaign was prepared for heavy spending on the part of national Democrats in his race.

“We’re ready for them,” said McClintock. “Prudence requires planning. We have, and we’re ready.”

McClintock, a state senator from Southern California, is running against retired Air Force officer Charlie Brown in a conservative Northern California district that has been historically unfriendly to Democrats. But on Tuesday, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee waded into similarly Republican trending districts in Kentucky and Maryland. And while the DCCC has yet to air advertisements in the 4th Congressional District, it has reserved time in the local media market.

“We’ve planned all along on the assumption that they would end up being in the district,” he said. “We’ve assumed that $1 million and as much as $2 million of DCCC money will enter this race.”

Trying to capitalize on the energy issue, the National Republican Congressional Committee is out with a television advertisement hitting House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) and the Democratic leadership.

“High energy prices are creating financial hardships for America’s family’s, driving up the cost of energy we buy, forcing layoffs, costing jobs,” a narrator says in the 30-second spot. “Now more than ever we need new sources of American energy. But Democrats are flocking the boat to increase the supply of American oil. Instead, they voted for a five-week paid vacation. Tell Pelosi to end the paid vacation. It’s time for Democrats to work with Republicans on real energy solutions.”

The advertisement, produced by GOP ad man Scott Howell, is running nationwide on FOX broadcast stations. The committee purchased a relatively small buy of $22,000 to air the spot. Unlike the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, the NRCC has yet to begin targeting individual districts with television advertisements.

U.S. Rep. Kevin McCarthyWASHINGTON -- U.S. Rep. Kevin McCarthy is one of the few people who will become so animated when talking about congressional elections that he leans forward in his seat in mid-conversation and touches the arm of the person he is speaking to.

“I believe everyone is addicted to something in life,” he said in an interview with PolitickerCA.com, and the first term Republican congressman said for him “it just happens to be politics.”

McCarthy’s enthusiasm and energy for politics, coming at a bleak time for house Republicans, has made him something of a standout in his freshman class and the party in general. Already, the Bakersfield congressman has been placed in an advisory position at the National Republican Congressional Committee and has been tapped to head up the party’s Platform Committee at the national convention in September. He’s a member of the Young Guns, a group of Republicans whose mission is to prop up house challengers around the country.

U.S. Rep. Kevin McCarthy: File PhotoWASHINGTON -- Kevin McCarthy, the first term U.S. Congressman from Bakersfield who is widely seen as a rising star within the Republican Party, tells PolitickerCA.com that he would not take the reins at the beleaguered National Republican Congressional Committee should sitting chair Tom Cole step aside.

"I don't think that you change midstream. You create a strategy and you play out the plan. Does the plan have to adapt? Yeah the plan has to adapt. I think the strength Cole - he's been in the foxhole before," said McCarthy this morning while sitting in his office in the Longworth building, a block from the U.S. Capitol.