I just love talking about Rob Haswell cause here is one candidate who has never run before and who’s running one of the most energized and smartest campaigns in the Lake Tahoe area.
In case you haven’t heard about Rob Haswell yet, and considering we’re mostly talking about congressional and gubernatorial campaigns you probably haven’t, he’s running in California’s open (!) 4th Assembly district which ranges from the suburbs of Sacramento up to Lake Tahoe. The district mostly overlapses with the 4th Congressional district represented by Abramoff buddy John Doolittle. Running against Doolittle is fighting Dem Charlie Brown.
A couple of days ago I also talked about Rob in my post The Modern Campaign.
Rob Haswell’s Republican opponent Ted Gaines is proud of his connection with Abramoff buddy John Doolittle as becomes apparent from his endorsement list and his photo page.
Recently, Carlos Alcala of the Sacramento Bee has also taken notice:
Placer-grown rivalry: Assembly candidate Rob Haswell scheduled some recent events with the theme of preserving open space and boosting local agriculture. Promoting his Loomis “Keep it Rural” rally, Haswell backers noted his family has been in Placer for five generations. It started with great-great-grandfather Frederick Birdsall, who came to Auburn in the 1870s and started an olive oil company that was family-run until the 1970s. (Street Whys mentioned this stuff in June, because some Auburn streets are named for Birdsalls.) We like Haswell’s rural and ag focus, but we have to point out that his opponent in the race has deep Placer ag roots, too. County Supervisor Ted Gaines’ great-great-grandfather was James William Kaseberg, who showed up in these parts in the 1850s or 1860s. He amassed up to 50,000 acres stretching from Roseville to the Sacramento River, and raised wheat, among other products. Roseville has a school, drive and park named Kaseberg. … One could see the Assembly race as a Wild West duel of farm histories, but we prefer a more peaceful scenario: Imagine that at some point in Placer’s past, someone sat down to eat and dipped bread made from Kaseberg wheat into Birdsall’s Aeolia Olive Oil.
That olive oil story is great and here is what Rob has to say about the “rural” background of Ted Haines:
My opponent, developer-backed Ted Gaines, also comes from deep agricultural roots in the county. Although we are both 5th Generation, we have come to very different conclusions about what the future of our region should look like. This race will be about those competing visions.
It’s fantastic to see a candidate take real interest in local issues and think about what’s best for the future. Rob Haswell’s support of PlacerGROWN is a great example. Encouraging people to buy local produce has several advantages: it’s good for the environment, it safes energy resources, it supports and creates employment in the area and of course the produce is always fresh.
Help Turn Tahoe Blue by contributing to Assembly candidate Rob Haswell!
This is an edited version of a post on my local blog Turn Tahoe Blue.
