POLITICAL WRANGLING

By Buck Shott

A Roundup of the latest national, state and local political news
 

March 1, 2010 -- As filing deadlines fast approach, who's in, who's out, and who's still on the fence?  Find out here!

Blast from the Past: While a trio of Republicans are vying for the Governor’s spot in the June primary, Democrats still have no declared candidate. But according to the Sacramento Bee, Attorney General and former Governor Jerry Brown will announce Tuesday his run for an historic third term as Governor. Senator Diane Feinstein, viewed as a potential contender, announced last week that she won’t be running for the Governor’s seat, meaning the ex-Guv won’t face a primary contender.

A Rovin, a Rovin’…..Karl Rove, aka “Bush’s Brain, the former White House Deputy Chief of Staff for George W. Bush, will be in town March 31st signing copies of his book, Courage and Consequences, at a fundraiser for Repubilcan Assemblyman Nathan Fletcher.
 

No mo’ Somo: In the 77th Assembly race, Arkan Somo put a stop to rumors that he may seek the seat, instead announcing his endorsement of El Cajon Vice Mayor Bill Wells for the seat in a blog post at the conservation San Diego Rostra site: http://sdrostra.com/?p=3229. . Somo, a leader in the Chaldean community, previously ran for a college board seat.  Santee Councilman Brian Jones and teacher/campaign veteran Christine Rubin are also in the race. Incumbent Joel Anderson has not filed for reelection, but is widely believedly likely to make a run for the State Senate seat being vacated by Dennis Hollingsworth due to term limits.
 

Watchdog in Washington? Ray Lutz, previous Assembly candidate and founder of the watchdog group CitizensOversight.org, has pulled papers to gather signatures for a possible run for the 52nd Congressional District held by Duncan Hunter, according to the Registrar of Voters. The Democratic contender posted a “draft Ray Lutz” notice online stating he’ll run if he can get financial backing and signatures of support from enough citizens to demonstrate support for his candidacy: http://www.copswiki.org/Ecdc/DraftRayLutzForCongress . Past candidates Michael Benoit, Libertarian, and Connie Frankowiak, Democrat, have also indicated plans to run, as has Republican Terri Linnell.
 

Anniversary waltz: California’s Democratic Party celebrated this month’s one-year anniversary of President Obama signing the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, which has funded approximately two million jobs nationwide including 70,745 jobs in California. About $21.5 billion in stimulus federal funding has been allotted to our state, of which about a third has been received thus far. The law “helped to save our economy from total collapse,” said Timothy Paulson, chair of the state party’s labor caucus. He added that the bill also gave working families in California a tax break and provided loans for small businesses to grow and create jobs, but conceded that more help is needed.

Senator Dennis Hollingsworth isn’t dancing to the same tune. He blasted Democrats’ plans for creating jobs. “This is a state made up of hard working people, but jobs are vanishing. Californians deserve real job creating measures and not more government spending that add to our growing deficit,” said the California Republican minority leader representing East County.