Editor’s note: This is the next endorsement on behalf of The Madison Project PAC in a continuing series of conservative endorsements for the 2012 congressional elections.

While we are all focused on the presidential campaign and some of the seminal battles in the Senate, the establishment is working overtime to fill the open House seats with like-minded candidates.  Nobody is focusing on the California presidential primary next Tuesday because Romney already clinched the nomination.  However, there is an important battle between the two factions of the party over an open House seat in the northeast corner of the state.

California is often viewed as a deep blue state that is incorrigibly out of reach for Republicans.  However, we must remember that there are large swaths of the state that still lean Republican.  In those areas, we must fill the Congressional districts with conservatives.

Let’s be honest. Very few of the 19 Republicans representing California are conservatives.  We need more insurgents to join the leading California conservative, Rep. Tom McClintock, in his effort to battle the moderate Republicans in California and elsewhere in the country.  Due to redistricting and vacancies, there are a number of open seats, but few of them are attracting conservative talent.

District 1, being vacated by Wally Herger (formerly named district 2), is an exception to this unfortunate reality.  That’s because former state senator Sam Aanestad is running for the seat.

During his tenure in the state Assembly and state Senate, Sam has been one of the few bright spots in the California Republican Party.  He has consistently supported the free-market from the nanny-state onslaught of both parties in this near-failed state.

He plans to substantiate his unvarnished support for free-markets by running on a platform to phase out farm subsidies and crop insurance, even though he hails from a farming district.  It’s high time we stop electing Republicans from some of our most conservative districts who claim to support the free market except for the aspects that are unpopular at home.  Rural dependency is just as bad as urban dependency, and Aanestad, unlike his main rival, is willing to say such.  His rival, Doug LaMalfa is a big supporter of government subsidies.  Republican Whip Kevin McCarthy is also working overtime to ensure that he wins and that McClintock is denied a key ally in the state’s delegation.  Republican leaders don’t want someone who will call them out for the debt ceiling like Aanestad has done.

In fact, it is precisely Sam’s straight talk and disregard for political correctness that makes him such an attractive candidate.  He is willing to tell the truth about our public policy problems without fear of reprisal from special interests.  He has stood up to the GOP establishment in California, and we are confident he will do the same in D.C.

The primary will be held Tuesday, June 5; however, due to the new election laws in California, Aanestad could very well face his big-government Republican rival in the general election.  California recently adopted a “jungle primary” system in which the top two vote-getters, irrespective of party affiliation, will proceed to the runoff.  In this strong Republican district, it is very likely that Aanestad and LaMalfa will move on to the general election.  It is easy to ignore this race with the assumption that we will win the seat in the fall.  However, it is precisely in districts like northeast Californian where we must elect a conservative, not just a Republican.  That man is Sam Aanestad.

Cross-posted from The Madison Project