"I want to introduce myself to many of you because, frankly, you don't know who I am," former Rep. Doug Ose told audience members at a candidates' forum in Auburn, California yesterday, according to the Sacramento Bee. Ose, who is running for retiring Rep. John Doolittle's Fourth District seat along with State Senator Tom McClintock and attorney Suzanne Jones, all have a surprising element in common: None of them actually live in the district they hope to represent.

Ose used to represent a neighboring district before leaving Congress after the 2004 elections. Jones, once a resident of the district, was drawn into the next district during the 2002 redistricting. And McClintock has a real trek ahead of him: He represents a State Senate district based in Thousand Oaks, about 400 miles south of the Sacramento-based Congressional District.

The candidates' forum provided an opportunity not only for the three Republicans to introduce themselves, but also to preview attack lines against their opponents. One like McClintock used against Ose perfectly sums up the trouble Republicans face this year: The State Senator criticized the former member of Congress for being a part of the "Republican Congress that voted for the biggest entitlements since the Great Society."

Members of the GOP will have a tough time convincing voters that they remain good stewards of fiscal responsibility, especially after the last session Republicans controlled the House, when Reps. Duke Cunningham and Bob Ney went to prison for their roles in appropriations issues and tight relationships with lobbyists, and after two other California members, Rep. Jerry Lewis and Doolittle himself, are said to be under scrutiny from authorities over their roles in doling out earmarks.

Ose fired back that McClintock has accepted pay raises as a legislator in Sacramento, and that McClintock has accepted a per diem living expense, which McClintock says is not unusual.

But two Republicans duking it out over fiscal spending, and with a Republican-held Congress as the punchline for one of those attacks, is a serious commentary on the state of the party. If McClintock's attacks work, it could be a sign that even being a Republican minority in Congress will not excuse some members who secure their own pork from being labeled a free spender.

The winner of the state's June 3 primary will face 2006 nominee Charlie Brown, a Democrat who came close to knocking off Doolittle last year and actually lives in the district.