On Your Marks, Get Set …

Democratic Lt. Gov. John Garamendi apparently wasn’t kidding in March when he vowed not to run for re-election to California’s least useful office. The veteran politician closed his ”Garamendi for Lieutenant Governor” committee this month and now has $150,000 in campaign cash stashed in the more nebulously named ”Garamendi 2001” committee.

Of course, there’s no real mystery about Garamendi’s plans. He’s run for governor before, in 1982 and 1994, and has told anyone interested that he’d like to try again. And with Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger termed out in 2010, the line of Democratic pols looking to move into that Sacramento office already is growing.

Attorney General — and former pre-term limits governor — Jerry Brown shut down his ”Brown for Attorney General” committee more than a year ago and on Jan. 1 had about $850,000 in ”Jerry Brown 2010.”

Like Garamendi and Brown, state Treasurer Bill Lockyer also could run for re-election two years from now but there is no guarantee he wants to spend four more years looking at ledgers. While there is still a ”Lockyer for Treasurer” committee with a bank balance of around $73,000, Lockyer has taken his supersized $9.8 million campaign nest egg — collected back in the days when there was no limit to how much contributors could shower on their political pals — and moved it to –surprise — the ”Lockyer 2010” committee.

Posted By: John Wildermuth (Email) |
June 13 2008 at 05:27 PM