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President-elect Donald Trump is considering former California Lt. Gov. Abel Maldonado to lead the Agriculture department, a move that would bring greater diversity to the Republican’s Cabinet. Maldonado will meet with Trump on Wednesday at his Palm Beach, Fla., estate. Trump spokesman Sean Spicer noted that Maldonado, owner of Runway Vineyards in the Santa Maria Valley, comes from three generations of farmers and has “strong roots in the agriculture industry of California.” Trump will also meet with Dr. Elsa Murano, the former president of Texas A&M; University and a former Agriculture undersecretary for food safety, in connection to the post,...

SAN FRANCISCO -- The state Supreme Court allowed California on Wednesday to go ahead with a voter-approved overhaul of primary elections, putting all candidates on the same ballot in the first round and matching the top two vote-getters, regardless of party, in the runoff. The justices unanimously denied a request to block the measure, Proposition 14, which takes effect in January.Prop. 14, which passed with a 54 percent majority in June, eliminates party primaries and instead requires all state and federal candidates, except those for president, to run in a single primary for each office. The top two finishers, who...

Lt. Gov. Abel Maldonado is running a radio ad criticizing Democratic rival Gavin Newsom, San Francisco's mayor, for a city policy to try to rehabilitate and release undocumented minors being held for crimes – without reporting them to federal officials for possible deportation. Following is an analysis by Susan Ferriss of The Bee Capitol Bureau: Text Narrator: It took a triple murder for Mayor Gavin Newsom to admit San Francisco's sanctuary city policies were a misguided and costly mistake. Second narrator: For four years while Newsom was mayor, San Francisco refused to turn dangerous illegal immigrant criminals over to authorities...

I began the week, along with many of you, urging acting governor Abel Maldonado to file the State’s appeal in the federal case involving Proposition 8. I end the week as his opponent and a candidate for the office of Lieutenant Governor. To some this may seem extreme or be dismissed as a publicity stunt. It is neither. It is the proper response when we find the two front runners for the office of Lieutenant Governor do not share our principles, our values or our respect for the legal system. The democratic nominee and mayor of San Francisco is the...

Outgoing Republican Lt. Gov. Abel Maldonado said today that he has contacted GOP members of California's congressional delegation and urged them to vote for a bill that would offer a path to legal status for undocumented youth. "Don't make this a political football. Get it done. California needs it," Maldonado, one of California's few high profile Republican Latinos said he told members. Maldonado, who is Mexican American and owns a farm, was appointed lieutenant governor this year but lost his bid for election in November. . . .

If Tuesday's opening debate in the lieutenant governor's race is a sign of things to come, buckle up. Lt. Gov. Abel Maldonado may be the incumbent, but he was on the attack early against Mayor Gavin Newsom, needling the mayor for his handling of the Cosco Busan oil spill, his wife's investments in oil companies and San Francisco's sanctuary city policy in a roughly 50-minute radio debate on KQED's Forum program. The mayor, for his part, tried to paint Maldonado as out of touch with the state on environmental issues and the embodiment of Sacramento political gridlock. Host Scott Shafer...

SACRAMENTO — The stakes are high and contrasts stark in Tuesday's special election to fill a vacant state Senate seat for a district that stretches from San Jose to Santa Maria, in Santa Barbara County. Democrats can inch closer to a two-thirds majority in the Senate with a victory, a prospect that has pitted powerful interests against each other in a bruising and costly battle over who controls the Capitol. The race features two candidates who represent the opposite ends of the partisan spectrum: former Assemblyman John Laird, an openly gay and liberal Democrat who is backed by labor unions...

In case anyone missed the tea leaves scattered around the country, California’s primary results offer more evidence of voters’ dislike for political parties. The Golden State on Tuesday passed Proposition 14, creating a so-called open primary in which any voter is allowed to cast their vote for any candidate in the primary, regardless of party affiliation. The top two vote-getters would face each other in the general election, even if they were from the same party. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger was a big backer of the change, arguing that it would push politics away from the polarized extremes and toward a...

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, considered famously liberal by many, released a radio ad Thursday attacking his GOP rival for lieutenant governor for voting to raise taxes.

California voters approve open primaries measure

Sixty percent of voters support a proposed overhaul California's primary system, according to a poll released Wednesday by the Public Policy Institute of California. Proposition 14, placed on the June 8 ballot by the Legislature as part of last year's budget deal, would replace the current party primaries with a system where candidates of all party affiliations run on the same primary ballot. The two candidates who receive the most votes, regardless of party, would advance to the general election. Twenty-seven percent of voters said they did not support the measure, and 13 percent are undecided. The results show a...

It's traditionally a job of limited power for a politician, more of a handy springboard to something grander in California politics. But this year's contest for lieutenant governor has taken on new meaning, at least among Republicans. It's become a proxy war inside the party over the kind of image the GOP should nurture to win in a state that's gone more Democratic and is more ethnically diverse than the GOP. As the June primary to nominate candidates heats up, two top GOP rival candidates personify this internal friction. Sen. Abel Maldonado of the coastal community of Santa Maria, 42,...

The Assembly voted 51-18 to approve GOP Sen. Abel Maldonado's lieutenant governor nomination today. The vote signals an end to a five month confirmation saga.

California hasn't had a lieutenant governor for several months, ever since Democrat John Garamendi resigned to take a seat in Congress.California has suffered no ill effects from having that vacancy. Like some other states, it could get along quite nicely without having a lieutenant governor.That should be kept in mind as the Senate votes on – and probably confirms – the nomination of Republican state Sen. Abel Maldonado as Garamendi's successor for the remainder of this year, following the Assembly's confirmation vote last week. The months-long Democratic stall on confirming Maldonado was pure politics that had nothing to do with...

How bad do the Democrats want to win the Senate seat vacated by newly crowned Lt. Gov. Abel Maldonado?First they strung out Republican Maldo's confirmation in the Assembly to force – they thought – Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to make the special election for the Senate seat the same day as the general election in November. That, the Dems figured, would let them take advantage of the largest possible voter turnout and give them the best chance to capture the Central Coast Senate seat.But the Republican governor is still a Republican, and he called for a special election in the dead...

State Sen. Abel Maldonado, the moderate Santa Maria Republican running for lieutenant governor, opened his speech to party convention delegates Saturday afternoon by acknowledging the discomfort many of them have with him for supporting new taxes, among other votes he has taken. When he walked into the room, he said, a delegate greeted him by saying, "Hey Abel, I think you're with the wrong party." "And I looked at him, and I said, 'I'm not with the wrong party, I'm with the right party. Let me tell you why.' " Maldonado, who spoke after the room had somewhat emptied following...

DeVore Slams Backroom Deals, Only Republican To Oppose Maldonado Confirmation FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE -- (SACRAMENTO) – California State Assemblyman Chuck DeVore, (R-70-Irvine), today spoke out against the backroom deals involved in the effort to confirm state Senator Abel Maldonado as California’s Lieutenant Governor. He then voted against the motion to confirm Maldonado and urged other lawmakers to do the same. DeVore cited Maldonado’s vote for the higher taxes included in 2009’s Proposition 1A in exchange for an agreement by the Governor and Democrat leaders to place Proposition 14, the open primary measure that infringes upon the rights of partisan voters...

Maldonado gets the OK as lieutenant governor The Senate voted 25-7 this afternoon to confirm Sen. Abel Maldonado's lieutenant governor nomination, clearing the way for the embattled pick to finally fill the vacant post. (SNIP) UPDATE 2:43 p.m.: The governor's office says Maldonado will be sworn in tomorrow in Sacramento.

The state Senate this afternoon voted 25-7 to confirm Gov. Arnold Schwarznegger’s nomination of state Sen. Abel Maldonado, R-Santa Maria, as lieutenant governor; the governor will swear him into office tomorrow. As I’d said Friday on KQED Channel 9’s “This Week in Northern California,” don’t mistake this for an instance of politics being put aside. Democrats supported Maldonado only because they want him out of the Senate so they can try to win his 15th State Senate District seat, and only now because confirming him earlier wouldn’t have allowed the SD-15 special election to be consolidated with November’s general election,...

Sacramento, Calif. (AP) -- Former lawmaker Abel Maldonado has been sworn in as California's lieutenant governor, becoming the only Hispanic in statewide office.