With 63 percent of precincts reporting by 10:50 p.m., Doolittle had a 5 percent lead over challenger Charlie Brown. Doolittle supporter Eric Egland, who headed Veterans Opposing Charlie Brown, credited Doolittle’s lead to his constituents looking past his bad press.

“The values of the Washington Post and the New York Times are not the values of those in Northern California,” Egland said.

But Brown’s camp refused to admit defeat last night until the results from Nevada County were tallied. At press time, Brown led Nevada County with 5 percent of the vote but none of the precincts had officially completed their reporting.

“I still feel very strongly that Nevada County is turning out for the Brown Camp,” said Brown spokesperson Todd Stenhouse.

Polls taken the week before the election predicted the race would be close. One poll from Survey USA and Sacramento’s News 10 showed Doolittle leading by seven points and another released from Seattle-based firm Constituent Dynamics showed Doolittle at 49 percent and Brown at 46 percent, a dead heat given the 3 to 4 percent margin of error.

Doolittle, 56, started his political career at the age of 30 in the California senate before running for the then 14th congressional district and winning in 1990. After redistricting in 1992, Doolittle’s seat became District 4, stretching from Lake Tahoe to the Oregon border and from Rocklin to the Nevada state line.

Doolittle found a tough opponent in Brown, 57, a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel and Vietnam veteran. A former employee of the Roseville Police Department, Brown, like Tammy Duckworth in Illinois, is one of many Democratic congressional candidates around the nation with war experience who waged tough fights in Republican strongholds.

Until now, Doolittle has won his races handily, including trouncing Democrat David Winters 65 percent to 35 percent just two years ago.

Doolittle also looked likely to win this year even after the Washington Post reported in 2005 that he received almost $80,000 in campaign contributions from Jack Abramoff, who pleaded guilty in January to fraud and conspiracy, according to a U.S. Department of Justice press release.

Brown had plenty to throw at Doolittle, including his connections to Abramoff and to the unpopular Bush administration, his vote to reduce medical benefits for veterans and his three draft deferments from the Vietnam War.

More scandals involving Doolittle also popped up during the race. In March, the San Diego Union-Tribune reported Doolittle’s wife Julie, also his campaign consultant, received around $200,000 over five years from campaign contributions. California is a “community property” state, meaning married couples share any income or property acquired during their marriage.

Doolittle’s chief of staff Richard Robinson said Doolittle’s wife, via her company Sierra Dominion Financial Solutions, did all the work for the campaign’s fund-raising and was paid legitimately – a 15 percent commission for each contribution the campaign received.

“Consistent with other fundraisers, Sierra Dominion receives a commission on all funds it is involved in raising,” Robinson said in a statement first sent to the Union-Tribune.

In September, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) included Doolittle in its report, “Beyond Delay: the 20 most corrupt members of congress.” The report can be seen at BeyondDelay.org.

Doolittle and his supporters have been fighting back, mostly at Brown’s criticism of the Iraq war. A group called Veterans Opposing Charlie Brown made ads focusing on Brown’s attendance at an anti-war protest in Sacramento that was also attended by left-wing activists Cindy Sheehan and actor Sean Penn.

President George W. Bush and his wife Laura Bush also campaigned in Sacramento for Doolittle.