Charlie Brown has been one of Blue America's priority candidates for Congress for over 3 years now. We first got behind him when he was running an impossible race in one of California's most Republican districts-- the PVI is an astounding R+11-- against crooked right-wing extremist John Doolittle. In 2006 Charlie drew 97,217 votes (vs 104,746) and held Doolittle to under 50%. Doolittle and his wife have been indicted on corruption charges and he decided not to run again and the California GOP got behind an even more extreme right-wing fringe candidate, Tom McClintock, a carpetbagger from L.A.

Today, with around 50,000 votes left to count, this is a 50/50 race, the Secretary of State's website showing that just 889 votes separate Charlie and McClintock. If all votes get counted, Charlie will win. McClintock and his lawyers will do all they can to prevent that from happening. In a letter to supporters yesterday, McClintock admitted that when the bulk of votes from Nevada County show up on the board this week, he will have a deficit.

McClintock's legal team will challenge every vote for Charlie and these battles are costly. Blue America is working on the DCCC to help and we hope to make an announcement about that in a few days. Meanwhile we want to urge anyone who still has anything they can spare to chip in to Charlie Brown's campaign fund. Even $5 and $10 donations help and you can do it right here at the Crooks & Liars Blue America page. This isn't a race about just "more Democrats;" this is a race about a BETTER Democrat, a much better Democrat.

Now to be fair, this could have been a Halloween prank, but Jiminy Cricket, what kind of mind thinks of a thing like this?

Calitics:

On Friday night, upon leaving the Charlie Brown for Congress campaign office in Grass Valley, staffers found a severed goat's head on the front step. [..]

Who in the world would do something like this? I don't care if it has nothing to do with the election, although putting it at a Brown campaign office obviously makes a certain connection. Authorities were involved in the removal and are looking into finding the perpetrator. If this is politically motivated, it is sad and cruel for someone to involve an innocent farm animal in their personal frustration or anger or derangement. Hopefully, those responsible will be caught.

The photos are more than a little graphic, and are available at Calitics, though I don't recommend going to the link if you are squeamish.

Sadly, despite being endorsed by his local newspaper against Republican rival Tom McClintock (the current seatholder, Republican John Doolittle did not seek re-election in the face of ongoing scandals), Charlie Brown is behind in the polls. If there are any C&Lers in the Sacramento/Grass Valley area who can volunteer at his office for one last "GOTV" effort, I'm sure he'd appreciate it.