This candidate for Congress plays rock'n'roll, wears designer shoes with long, square toes and an Iron Cross buckle and creates Web sites for businesses around the world. He likes to relax on his porch with a cigar while watching the deer stroll among the trees.

Look out, America: There's a New Politician on the scene, and he's a local.

Theodore Terbolizard - that's his legal name - calls himself a paleo-conservative and says the GOP has lost touch with its core values of personal freedom, limited government, financial restraint and commitment to the free market.

The Cedar Ridge resident is a free spirit, devoted to both business and art.

"I support freedom in every form of its manifestations," says Terbolizard. "I support freedom and less government."

Nearly 40, he launched his campaign for the 4th Congressional District seat last fall. He thinks he has a chance, improved now that Rep. John Doolittle said this week he would not seek re-election to a 10th term later this year.

Other candidates or possible ones include: State Sen. Sam Aanestad, R-Grass Valley (undecided); former state Sen. Thomas "Rico" Oller, a Republican from San Andreas; Republican and former Auburn Mayor Mike Holmes; Air Force major Eric Eglund, a Republican from Rocklin; and Democrat Charles Brown, a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel from Roseville who beat Doolittle in Nevada County two years ago.

Terbolizard can't claim a record in prior political or military service. But he has a number of attributes, beyond looking like a young Robert DeNiro and having an engaging manner, political passion and a friendly, silly laugh.

A lifelong technophile, Terbolizard hangs out on social networking Web sites such as YouTube, MeetUp and MySpace, where the former Webcast news anchorman has posted his own videos. He claims to have developed quite a following.

"If you are a representative of the people, you have to listen to the people, right?" he says. And the people increasingly are communicating on the Internet, turning their backs on newspapers, television and other "old" media.

"As a congressman, I can come off a floor vote, set up my camera, get in front of it, shoot my own video and post my own video blog. I don't need ABC," Terbolizard says. "And the audience can comment back, immediately. ... You get a sense of what goes over well and what doesn't."

'We're blowing it'

The fifth-generation Northern Californian has lived in places ranging from San Francisco to the Peninsula to Sacramento to Lake Tahoe. He took the name Terbolizard when his daughter was born 10 years ago.

"We wanted a clan name, like Laughing Bear," he says. Terbo was a "geek" term in early Internet days, and Lizard was a fond nickname for the child's mother.

During a recent visit, Terbolizard wore Mark Nison loafers (cut in a style all the rage in Italy) with his dark blue, pin-stripe, double-vent suit.

"I was with my rock'n'roll buddies last night," he says, looking at his shoes.

If elected, he would work to bring American troops home from Iraq - immediately.

"To me, victory in Iraq looks like a rebuilt Baghdad where people can do business," he says.

He'd work to slash taxes, abolish the IRS, broaden the worker visa program to encourage legal immigration, promote "sensible, sustainable use of the environment" and expand free trade with rogue nations.

"Countries that have McDonald's don't go to war with each other," Terbolizard says.

He would also strive to rein in spending. "Our party has completely lost it on fiscal restraint," he says. "We're blowing it right now."

And he's not worried about anyone who doesn't like hearing him say so.

As a guitarist and singer in a Bay Area rock band, "I'm used to drunk, rude people who spit beer at you and give you the finger," he says with another quick laugh. "Politics, with its smear tactics, is much more civilized."

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To contact City Editor Trina Kleist, e-mail tkleist@theunion.com or call 477-4230.



More about Ted Terbolizard



Campaign page

www.terbocongress.org



MySpace site

www.myspace.com/

terbocongress



YouTube site

www.youtube.com/

terbocongress



Three congressional candidates campaign to bring troops home from Iraq

www.bringthem home08.com



Toll-free message line

888-236-0943

- Trina Kleist