Tom McClintock - U.S. House of Representatives

U.S. House of Representatives

On March 4, 2008, McClintock announced his candidacy for the U.S. House of Representatives in California's 4th congressional district, which is hundreds of miles away from the district McClintock represented in the state Senate. The district's nine-term incumbent, fellow Republican John Doolittle, did not seek re-election. Upon McClintock's entry into the race, fellow Republicans Rico Oller and Eric Egland withdrew from the Republican primary and endorsed McClintock.

In the Republican primary, McClintock defeated former Congressman Doug Ose, Suzanne Jones, and Theodore Terbolizard. Ose formerly represented the neighboring 3rd District. The Democratic nominee was retired Air Force Lt. Col. Charlie Brown, who ran an unexpectedly strong race against Doolittle in 2006. In March 2008, Ose's campaign commercials criticized McClintock for receiving payments totaling over $300,000 in per diem living expenses during his time in the California State Senate, despite the fact that he lived in Elk Grove, near Sacramento, for most of the year. McClintock held that the payments were justified because his legal residence was in Thousand Oaks, in his State Senate district. He stated, "Every legislator's residence is close to the Capitol. My residential costs up here are much greater than the average legislator because my family is here." However, Ose's campaign commercials argued McClintock does not own or rent in home in the 19th district, but uses his mother's address. These attacks prompted a response from McClintock's wife, Lori, who said McClintock stays with his mother in order to better care for her after she fell ill and after the death of her husband.

McClintock was endorsed by the Republican Liberty Caucus, a libertarian political action committee within the Republican Party, for his 2008 race for California's Fourth District Congressional seat. He was also endorsed by Ron Paul, who issued a fundraising email on behalf of McClintock.

On November 4, 2008, McClintock had a razor-thin lead over Brown. By November 23, 2008, McClintock led Brown by 1,566 votes (0.427% of the vote), 184,190 to 182,624. Subsequent returns expanded the margin slightly with the last returns coming in from El Dorado County shortly after Thanksgiving. Finally, on December 1, 2008, McClintock declared victory and on December 3, 2008, Brown conceded the race, with the final totals 185,790 for McClintock to 183,990 for Brown; a margin of 1,800 votes in the 807 precincts. McClintock ultimately prevailed by virtue of a 3,500-vote margin in Placer County, the largest county located entirely in the district.

McClintock was unable to vote for himself in either the primary or the general election because the California Constitution required him to maintain his legal residence in his State Senate district until the end of his Senate term. Furthermore, in order to vote using a ballot in regards to a specific congressional district, one must live within that district. Because Thousand Oaks is outside of California's Fourth Congressional District, McClintock was therefore ineligible to vote for himself.