During his narrow victory over Hannah-Beth Jackson, I found this picture of a beaming Tony Strickland in front of some political signs he had stolen from an opposing campaign. Very cute.  Apparently being a little (or, in Strickland’s case, a big, tall) huckster is in his political DNA.

Back in 1998, fresh from his first election to the Assembly, he helped depose the guy who got him there, Rod Pacheco.  I guess if it worked for him once, Strickland figured why not do it again when he was central to deposing Dave Cogdill:

Next week marks the 10th anniversary of former Riverside County legislator Rod Pacheco’s unceremonious ouster as Assembly GOP leader.

Pacheco, now the county DA, was the last county lawmaker to lead any legislative caucus until restive Senate Republicans installed state Sen. Dennis Hollingsworth of Murrieta as minority leader during last month’s budget standoff.

At the center of both moves was Ventura County lawmaker Tony Strickland. (Press-Enterprise 3/30/09)

And guess what, Strickland got a promotion to assistant minority leader out of the coup.  Works out well for the hoops-shooting Senator from Ventura.  It appears that Strickland is trying to angle for the minority leader gig when Sen. Hollingsworth is termed out in 2010.  But, the fight between Runner will be a brutal one. Both are extremely ambitious, and extremely out of touch with the political views of the majority of the state.