In case you’ve neglected your political calendar lately, we’re nearly to the 4th of July, beyond the June 8th primary, and the November 2010 general election race for the 3rd Congressional District seat between challenger Ami Bera and incumbent Dan Lungren is in full swing. Nowhere has this race been more evident recently than it was in the mid-June dust-up in which Bera accused Lungren of being silent about the gulf oil spill, calling him “a pawn of BP and big oil” who tacitly defends BP (the firm that caused the Deepwater Horizon spill, easily the nation’s worst environmental disaster ever), because he (Lungren) relies heavily on the oil and gas industry to finance his political campaig

A Johnny Cash tune playing in the background, Midtown activist and former mayoral candidate Shawn Eldredge announced Friday that he is running for the 3rd District seat on the City Council held by Steve Cohn. Communities in the district include downtown, East Sacramento, Midtown and Arden Fair. Eldredge, a building contractor, took a break from a construction project at the MARRS building in Midtown to talk about his plans. Last year, he lost the race for mayor to Kevin Johnson. If elected to the City Council, Eldredge said his priorities would be “clean and safe” issues, noting that business growth is linked to people feeling comfortable in their environment. Business growth and develop