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LOS ANGELES - Democrat John Garamendi won a close race for lieutenant governor, as Republicans faltered in their efforts to win statewide offices and gain power in Sacramento. Garamendi, who currently serves as insurance commissioner, edged out conservative Republican state Sen. Tom McClintock, an anti-tax ideologue, in Tuesday's election. Democrats also won races for California attorney general, treasurer and controller. "The conclusion to be drawn here is that California is still a true progressive state even though it has a nominally Republican governor," Garamendi said. With 93 percent of precincts reporting, Democratic state Sen. Debra Bowen had a slim lead...

Welcome to the live thread for the California Primary Election. Polls are open until 8pm tonight. If you are a registered voter, it is your duty to vote and defend your rights and civil liberties, protect your pocketbook, and vote the bums out where applicable. Feel free to discuss issues key to your local area that others may be interested in. Post your polling place experiences if you like. And post numbers as they come in later tonight.

As Phil Angelides' hopes of becoming governor of California sink to zero, political junkies and interest groups are turning their attention to a handful of other statewide offices that, with less than a week of campaigning remaining, are still in contention. The big question is whether a very strong re-election vote for Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, perhaps even a landslide, will translate into Republican gains in down-ballot contests, especially if Angelides' poor showing depresses Democratic turnout. As a new Field Poll underscores, Democrats have pretty much sewed up two of those offices, attorney general and treasurer. Former Gov. (and current Oakland...

Crime Victims Support PoochigianQUICKTIME required

A woman who five years ago settled a sexual harassment claim against a former longtime aide and friend to Oakland Mayor Jerry Brown came forward Thursday to criticize Brown's handling of the case. Appearing next to Chuck Poochigian -- Brown's Republican opponent in the state attorney general's race -- Nereyda Lopez-Bowden accused Brown of ignoring her complaints about Jacques Barzaghi, who had been at Brown's side for decades before he was fired in 2004. "He enabled Jacques Barzaghi for many years to continue his 'predatorial' behavior and harassment of women and men in the office," said Lopez-Bowden, speaking publicly about...

Kevan Blanche is a California attorney and campaign finance consultant. JERRY BROWN has been an unabashed and stalwart devotee of left-wing politics throughout his career, but in recent years he has led many to believe that he has joined the political mainstream. Nothing could be farther from the truth, and as mayor of Oakland, Brown has once again reaffirmed his longtime sympathies for leftist causes, while consistently working to undermine U.S. foreign policy with regard to Cuba's communist regime. In the February 28, 2002 issue of the Nation, reporter Marc Cooper wrote of his encounter with the mayor and of...

To hear Jerry Brown as he stumps for attorney general, a voter might think he is running on the Republican ticket with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. During a recent debate with his GOP opponent Chuck Poochigian, Brown, a Democrat, mentioned Schwarzenegger several times, insisting his positions on the environment, gun control and the minimum wage were more in line with the Republican governor. Then, on a campaign stop in Alameda, he painted Poochigian's views on stem cell research and other issues as far to the right of Schwarzenegger. Brown mentioned Phil Angelides, the Democratic nominee for governor, once during the events....

SACRAMENTO -- A judge Tuesday rejected a request by Republican activists for a preelection hearing on their bid to bar Oakland Mayor Jerry Brown from becoming attorney general if the Democrat wins Nov. 7. Brown supporters declared victory and predicted that the lawsuit, which they called a "political stunt," would evaporate after his election day showdown with state Sen. Chuck Poochigian (R-Fresno). Republican officials say they will continue to press for a hearing after the election to get a fair airing of their challenge to Brown's qualifications to hold office. The activists focused their challenge on Brown's eligibility under a...

Republican officials filed a lawsuit Thursday seeking to have Democrat Jerry Brown disqualified from the state attorney general race because he doesn't meet a basic requirement for the post. The Brown campaign dismissed the claims as baseless. At issue is a requirement that candidates be admitted to practice before the state Supreme Court for at least five years immediately preceding the election. According to the State Bar's Web site, Brown was admitted to the bar in 1965, went inactive in 1992, reactivated in 1996, went inactive again in 1997 and has been an active member from 2003 to the present....

His approval rating is up to 56%, according to the latest Los Angeles Times poll, a rise of nearly 20 percentage points in one year. His advisors say they still worry when he speaks in public, wondering if he'll blurt out something that offends a constituency or torpedoes a policy position his administration spent months crafting. Every year the California Chamber of Commerce, the state's leading business lobbying group, puts out a list of what it calls "job killer bills" — legislation it wants defeated. Of 11 such bills that passed the Legislature and made it to the governor's desk...

(snip) Although the governor has expended virtually no political capital helping down-ticket Republicans, some of them are holding their own. Conservative stalwart Tom McClintock, the Simi Valley Republican senator, is neck-and-neck with Democrat John Garamendi for lieutenant governor. Garamendi is plagued by the Executive Life scandal that took place the first time he was insurance commissioner, in the early 1990s. As the LA Times reported, Garamendi used his office to seize the California unit of First Executive Corp., a junk-bond funded company that began to implode after junk-bond prices collapsed. Garamendi then sold the company to French investors as a...

Republicans are set to file a lawsuit Thursday in Sacramento County Superior Court that seeks to disqualify Oakland Mayor Jerry Brown from holding the state attorney general's office. The suit, to be filed by Tom Del Beccaro, chairman of the Contra Costa County GOP, will assert that Brown, a Democrat, will run afoul of a state law if he wins next month because he reactivated his status in the State Bar in May 2003. Government Code Section 12503 declares that no person is eligible to be attorney general unless "he shall have been admitted to practice before the Supreme Court...

Two Northern California county Republican chairmen intend to sue today to disqualify Democrat Jerry Brown from serving as state attorney general, but Brown's campaign calls it the last gasp of a desperate campaign. "I can't tell you the nuts and bolts of what's behind it but we will have the news conference" at 10:30 a.m. in Sacramento, Contra Costa County GOP chairman Tom Del Beccaro said Wednesday; Yolo County GOP Chair Mark Pruner is involved, too. A posting on Del Beccaro's Web site, www.politicalvanguard.com, said Oakland's mayor "is ineligible to serve as attorney general, because he does not meet the...

OAKLAND - Republicans are set to file a lawsuit Thursday in Sacramento County Superior Court that seeks to disqualify Oakland Mayor Jerry Brown from holding the state attorney general's office. The suit, to be filed by Tom Del Beccaro, chairman of the Contra Costa County GOP, will assert that Brown, a Democrat, will run afoul of a state law if he wins next month because he reactivated his status in the State Bar in May 2003. Government Code section 12503 declares that no person is eligible to be attorney general unless "he shall have been admitted to practice before the...

While the rest of the nation lurches ahead to Election Day, California remains stuck in a time warp. Take the governor's race between incumbent Arnold Schwarzenegger and State Treasurer Phil Angelides. It started out as the 1984 presidential contest redux, with Arnold reprising the role of Ronald Reagan (hopeless optimist) and Angelides that of Walter Mondale (doomed the moment he called for higher taxes). That was before Angelides set the way-back machine to the 1960s, channeling his inner Tom Hayden and vowing to sue the Bush administration to return California's National Guard troops from Iraq. Unfortunately, for Angelides, time isn't...

If we have lost anything in this country, it is our sense of what is important in a political election. Recently, in California’s election race, Oakland Mayor [and former Governor], Jerry Brown, called Chuck Poochigian an extremist because State Senator Poochigian believes in the Constitution. Mayor Brown is a very smart and experienced politician. Obviously, he thought his accusation would get him votes. That is very frightening. An electorate that doesn’t soundly reject any politician who advocates ignoring the Constitution, expanding government power, and diminishing freedom is in serious trouble. In so many ways, California is in serious trouble. Quite...

Strange bedfellows: It turns out that ultra-hot conservative talk show host Michael Savage is backing Oakland Mayor Jerry Brown for state attorney general. "What can I say? I think he'd make a great attorney general compared to the other guy. By the way, who is the other guy?'' Savage said, when asked why he chose Democrat Brown over conservative Republican Chuck Poochigian. Savage, whose rants can be heard locally on KNEW-AM, is backing up his hot talk with some hot money as well. Savage Productions, which lists Savage as president and his wife, Janet Weiner, as director, has donated $5,600...

Republican state senator trails better-known Jerry Brown in polls. Chuck Poochigian first volunteered in a political campaign in 1977 at a rally where George Deukmejian was ramping up his bid for state attorney general -- and accusing then Gov. Jerry Brown of being soft on criminals. Nearly three decades later, it's Poochigian's turn to run for attorney general -- and accuse Brown, now Oakland mayor, of being soft on crime. [Podcast: Jim Zamora interviews AG hopeful Chuck Poochigian. ] "I guess you could say it's ironic that we're still having these discussions about Jerry Brown and crime in 2006,"...

Has anyone heard the campaign ad Ben Stein did for Chuck Poochigian? It's pretty funny. :)

The choice for attorney general is a slam dunk -- State Sen. Chuck Poochigian, R-Fresno. Throughout his years in public life, Poochigian has been a steady, thoughtful and effective lawmaker. His opponent, former Gov. Jerry Brown, who went on to become Oakland's mayor, has been a policy gadfly on more sides of more issues in more state offices than anyone in recent memory. Poochigian's credentials to be the state's "top cop" as attorney general make Brown's laughable by comparison. As a three-term legislator from Fresno who at times represented parts of Kern County, Poochigian has been a strong supporter of...