Capitol Weekly is typically pretty clued in, and today they report that John Garamendi will run for the seat vacated by Ellen Tauscher.
We hear that John Garamendi is getting ready to jump into the Congressional race against Mark DeSaulnier for Ellen Tauscher’s vacant, East Bay Congressional seat. Garamendi has name ID in a race that will likely feature low turn-out, and has to be seen as a front-runner (this from a column that has not seen a lick of polling in the race). So, let’s go to the dominos, shall we? Of course, it’s bad news for DeSaulnier and Joan Buchanan, who both wanted to run for the seat. Of course, everyone’s got a free run at it, so there’s nothing to stop DeSaulnier or Buchanan from plunging into the race. DeSaulnier already has some top endorsements, and is unlikely to back down now. It’s also bad news for Dean Florez and Alan Lowenthal, who were mounting Lite Gov campaigns for 2010. If Garamendi wins, Schwarzenegger will get to appoint a new lieutenant, and Florez or Lowenthal would have to run against an incumbent. Of course, that didn’t work out too well for Bruce McPherson, so all is not lost.
This probably makes sense for him. While Garamendi arguably had the best policy set among the gubernatorial candidates, he just wasn’t gaining any traction. And his experience in Washington will be an asset in this race. I would agree that DeSaulnier stays in, considering that he cleaned up every major endorsement, but that could all be subject to change given this development. Buchanan probably stays put at this point.
And of course this beginst the whole question about who Arnold appoints to replace Garamendi if he wins.
The CW reports mentions this is bad news for Lowenthal and Florez, but what about Jeff Denham? If Garamendi wins, surely Arnold won’t be appointing anybody who voted against his budget package. Poor Denham won’t even get the chance to run his losing campaign for lt. gov.
That leaves only 6 Republicans in the legislature. Of course, you never know with Arnold, he might just cross party lines. But dear lord, if he appointed Abel Maldonado, I think my head just might explode.
I always thought that Garamendi’s latest run for Governor wasn’t going particularly well, despite the fact that he’s got a lot of good ideas, and has in his past runs. It just seems he’s had bad luck when he’s run (remember when he fell and broke his leg in 1994?)
If anything it’d mean the election for that seat would be very interesting. I just hate the idea of Governor 30% appointing anyone to anything…
I know he wasn’t lighting up the charts, but Garamendi was something of a bright spot in the gov’s race, at least based on the limited info I know about him.
What’s left – just the 3 stooges? Moe Villaraigosa, Curly Brown, and Larry Newsom? U G H.
It seemed pretty clear Garamendi wouldn’t win, but at least it was someone to feel positive about in this race for the time being . . . now what
I don’t get it, is his campaign losing that much water, that he needs to jump onto the first passing electoral opportunity that passes him by, with this (projected) special election in CA-10?
His name recognition is effective state-wide, but he has deep roots in CA-3, and there’s no clear candidate to run against Dan Lungren there…
Someone more progressive than Tauscher from CA-10, and a Democrat in CA-3 is win/win. Why is he jumping off of the gubernatorial train so soon?