GOP congressional hopeful Nicholas Gerber says he is already listening to his constituents.

And they apparently prefer him clean-shaven. Gerber says folks are telling him to ditch the beard.

“Polls even show that voters prefer candidates without beards,” Gerber says.

But there’s no free shave for Republicans who can’t abide the sight of a 5 o’clock shadow. Gerber says he will lather up and remove that unsightly facial hair if Contra Costa’s Republican womens groups donate $100,000 to his campaign against incumbent Rep. Ellen Tauscher, D-Alamo.

Gerber told the San Ramon Valley Republican Women on Tuesday that he needs $1 million to run against Tauscher in 2008. (She has already raised nearly $500,000 as of Sept. 30.)

“If each of you writes a $35 check and you persuade 10 of your friends to write $35 checks and we do this in all the Republican women clubs, we will have raised $100,000,” Gerber said.

Gerber says he has contributed $100,000 of his own money and if the women pony up, that still leaves him $800,000 short. Well, not quite. As of Sept. 30, he reported $1,350 in contributions to the Federal Election Commission, so he’s $798,650 shy of his target.

At this rate, he’ll have to sell his beard quite a few times between now and November 2008.

But all is not lost. According to “Presidential Trivia” by Richard Lederer, from Abraham Lincoln to Benjamin Harrison, every U.S. president to have a beard has been a Republican.

It’s not easy being red on a blue college campus but the Berkeley College Republicans are pocketing a little extra green to help ease their minority status.

The San Ramon Valley Republican Women gave the student club $1,000 this week, the first of what the promised will be an annual investment intended to help foster the formation of young GOP minds at UC-Berkeley, a campus synonymous with liberal politics.

Club President Ross Lingenfelder, a third-year math major, regaled the women with stories of the group’s efforts to bring conservative speakers to campus, participate in debates with the Berkeley College Democrats and its placement of U.S. flags on campus on the anniversary of Sept. 11.

Lingenfelder’s voice rang with extra enthusiasm about when the club’s members show up at liberal events — of which he said there are many, he said — and protest.

“One of our great joys is counter protesting,” said a smiling Lingenfelder, whose business card says “From Behind Enemy Lines.”

But don’t look for Lingenfelder anywhere on campus carrying any big protest signs this week. It’s finals.

Longtime Contra Times Times reader and unofficial Bay Point Mayor Gloria Magleby has a complaint with this newspaper. Here’s a chuckle for your day:

Obituary, Obituary,
Oh, where can you be?
Are you in section A, or B, or C?
Are you on page 2 or 3 or 5?
‘Cause I’d really like to know for sure,
Whether I’m dead or alive.
Should I look in the Sports Section
For news of my demise,
Or just keep searching ’til
“Obituaries” hit my eyes?
As we older people like to say,
“Keep the obits in the same place and way,
‘Cause, like it or not,
We’re going to be found there some day!”

Signed: Rabble Rouser Gloria

Real estate appraiser Joe Rubay has dropped out of the running for the Republican nomination in Assembly District 15.

That leaves just four Republicans actively campaigning for the hotly contested seat that has attracted a cavalcade of candidates. Seven Democrats have created campaign committees and are raising money for the race, too. Incumbent Assemblyman Guy Houston, R-San Ramon, will term out next year and run for the Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors.

Rubay is personable and fun but he’s new to the political scene and he just couldn’t keep up with his more experienced colleagues, particularly when it came to raising money and attracting endorsements.

As for Rubay’s part, he says he will “support the Republican primary winner 100 percent.”

Contra Costa Times reporter Tom Lochner has posted a story this afternoon detailing a fracas related to the Pinole recall and a meeting of the county Democratic Party.

Click her to read the the story, but here is a portion of yet another story in the political saga that has hit Pinole in recent months as residents seek to recall two councilmembers:

Two Pinole City Council members fighting recall have received the endorsement of the county Democratic Party, but a member of the party’s executive committee says a resolution supporting the recall targets was “railroaded through.”

Alegria, who faces a recall election Feb. 5 along with Councilman Stephen Tilton, said in an e-mail Friday that she is grateful for the party’s support.

Concord is abuzz today over rumors that ex-city manager Ed James will temporarily occupy the top management spot after the departure of city manager Lydia Du Borg later this month. Check out this post on www.claycord.com.

The City Council is not confirming or denying James’ return, says our Concord reporter Tanya Rose who put in a round of calls.

But if it’s true, it’s a good idea. A city the size of Concord needs someone at the helm and a familiar face will help ease tensions and keep the city off the rocks while the city searches for a new manager.

Du Borg resigned after the City Council delivered her performance review in closed session earlier this month. There had been talk for months that Du Borg and some members of the council were clashing on management style and policies. But since the announcement of resignation, the members of the City Council have offered little in the way of a plausible explanation for her departure other than a few weak platitudes.

The silence is not sitting too well with residents who have a lot of questions about the turnover at City Hall. In the past few months, the city has lost or will lose its top manager, deputy city manager, human resources director and two people working on the planning for the Concord Naval Weapons Station.

Endorsements don’t often get my attention; they’re usually predictable and ubiquitous.

But here’s one that popped into my e-mail box this morning that may interest you: Ex-GOP presidential nominee and former U.S. Sen. Bob Dole will serve as the honorary campaign chairman for Republican Assembly District 15 candidate Judy Biviano Lloyd.

Whether or not this means Dole will actually set foot in District 15, which stretches from Walnut Creek to Livermore, is an open question that may or may not matter given Dole’s stature as a conservative statesman. (Click here to see a map of the district.)

Lloyd has come under some criticism for relying too heavily on endorsements of people who don’t live in the district. She also doesn’t live in the district yet, although she has put her Pleasanton house on the market and plans to move.

On the other hand, Lloyd is in a fierce, five-way race for the GOP nomination in June 2008 and clearly intends to use every political arrow in her quiver to distinguish herself from her male challengers: Scott Kamena, Robert Rao, San Ramon Mayor Abram Wilson and Joe Rubay. And Lloyd’s ammunition now includes Dole, the man she worked for as a special assistant when he was the U.S. Senate Majority Leader.

The California Legislative Analyst’s Office just released its outlook on the state’s financial picture through 2013 and the skies are not sunny.

“To balance the 2008–09 budget, the state will have to adopt nearly $10 billion in solutions,” according to the LAO’s press release.

“Solutions” is one of those cute government euphemisms, kind of like substituting “challenges” for “problems.”

“Addressing the state’s current budget problem is even more urgent because we forecast a continuing gap between revenues and expenditures,” the release said. “A plan to permanently address the state’s fiscal troubles must involve a substantial portion of ongoing solutions.”

To read the full report, click on one of the following:

Summary:
http://www.lao.ca.gov/laoapp/PubDetails.aspx?id=1681

HTML:
http://www.lao.ca.gov/2007/fiscal_outlook/fiscal_outlook_07.aspx

Adobe Acrobat:
http://www.lao.ca.gov/2007/fiscal_outlook/fiscal_outlook_07.pdf

View this webcast using the following link:
http://www.lao.ca.gov/2007/webcasts/fiscal_outlook/EH_fiscoutlook07.aspx

Concord City Manager Lydia Du Borg has resigned from her $205,000 a year job, Times reporter Tanya Rose confirmed a few hours ago. (Click here to read Rose’s story.)

There’s been talk for weeks that some members of the City Council were dissatisfied with Du Borg, a 30-year employee of the city who took the top job about three years ago, over her management of city issues such as the Concord Naval Weapons Station and union contracts.

The council conducted her performance review recently in closed session and while no one is talking about what took took place, Du Borg is leaving rather than placing a renewal of her contract on the agenda for a vote.

City managers have precarious jobs, of course.

They are at-will employees who must cater to the often conflicting demands of politicians and residents while leading a diverse government operation under tight budget constraints. Du Borg’s predecessor, Ed James, was a master ringleader of this public circus and following in his footsteps would have been a tough job for anyone.

A bill passed by the House of Representatives today that provides temporary relief from the alternative minimum tax through new taxes on hedgefund managers would benefit an estimated 200,325 East Bay taxpayers, according to statistics provided by the office of Rep. George Miller, D-Martinez.

If approved by the Senate and signed by President Bush, an outcome far from certain given Republican opposition, the bill would stall for one year the imposition of the alternative minimum tax.

Estimates from Miller’s office show a dramatic increase in the estimated numbers of taxpayers in three East Bay congressional districts who would pay the AMT without a change in the tax law.

In Miller’s district, which includes portions of northern and western Contra Costa County, the number of people paying AMT would rise from 7,537 in 2005 to 58,558, a 677 percent increase. In Rep. Ellen Tauscher’s district next door, which includes most of Central Contra Costa County, the figure rises from 20,618 to 92,246, a 347 percent hike. And in Rep. Jerry McNerney’s district, which incompasses the San Ramon Valley and Eastern Contra Costa County, the number would jump from 24,208 taxpayers to 101,884, a four-hold increase.

With the economy struggling and a presidential campaign under way, a fight over the AMT has already fueled more partisan conflict in Congress.

House Republican Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, in a statement released today, called the bill the first step toward a $3.1 trillion tax increase and a “back-door way of permanently taxing entrepreneurs who create family-wage jobs. The Senate won’t support it, and the President won’t sign it. The Majority insisted on today’s exercise in futility instead of acting with urgency on a bipartisan solution to protect middle-class taxpayers.”

UPDATE:
Rep. Ellen Tauscher, D-Alamo, also sent out a statement on the tax today.

“This is a perfect example of the new Congress working in real-time for American families,” Tauscher said. “We were able to provide the right kind of tax relief that keeps money in the pockets of middle class Americans without further adding to the deficit.”

According to Tauscher’s office, without a change in the AMT law, taxpayers lose the ability to claim tax deductions for dependent children and for state and local taxes, and would pay on average $3,600 more in federal income taxes. Without the bill, she said, the AMT income threshold for 2007 would be joint filers earning $45,000 and single filers earning $35,750.

To read Boehner’s press release, click here.

To read Miller’s press release, click here.

To read Tauscher’s press release, click here.

Photo from Miller’s congressional web site at http://www.house.gov/georgemiller/bio.html