In January, the Sacramento Press described the 3rd District congressional race beginning between Ami Bera and Dan Lungren and how there’s a clear choice between Lungren, the incumbent, a career politician exemplifying the status quo running against Dr. Bera, a progressive-minded newcomer.  A clear choice, including the way each of the two candidates finances his campaign. The bottom line: Dr. Bera is raising more campaign money from far more small donors than is Lungren. For the 2009-10 campaign, Bera reports raising $1,257,000 versus Lungren’s $953,000, and he (Bera) has raised nearly all (92%) from individuals, rather than political action committees (PACs). By contrast, Lungren has rai

Each season around this time, polls like Field and others publish early voter preference results and the pundits proclaim that political campaigns have started. In truth, these campaigns have been going for some time, albeit somewhat “under the media radar,” and so it is with the campaigns of incumbent Dan Lungren and challenger Ami Bera in the area’s 3rd congressional district. . As reapportioned in 2001, the 3rd district resembles an ungainly beast, stretching from part of Solano County in the west, south around downtown Sacramento and into the city’s eastern suburbs and on west, incorporating all of Amador, Calaveras and Alpine Counties, extending to the Nevada border in the Sierra mou