THE HORSE RACE FOR GOVERNOR
It’s still three years away, but political pundits around the Capitol are already prognosticating about the 2010 race for Governor. Democratic blogger Steve Maviglio, of The California Majority Report, says L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa is the prohibitive favorite, despite a recent public breakup with his wife. “He’s still the guy that’s holding L.A. together” says Maviglio, noting the mayor has won control of the L.A. school board.
Moving up the ranks, according to Maviglio, is Attorney General Jerry Brown of Oakland, who climbs from sixth to second. “I’ve seen some polling showing he leads everybody else,” including Antonio Villaraigosa, notes Maviglio. Brown still has incredible name ID – not surprising, since Brown was in fact Governor of California more than twenty years ago.
San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom drops to third in the Maviglio forecast, while State Treasurer Bill Lockyer of Hayward is 4th and Lt. Governor John Garamendi is 5th, despite plenty of publicity for naming “Delta and Dawn”, the two wayward whales. The highest ranking woman on the list is former State Senator Jackie Speier of San Francisco. She now #9, up from 13. And new to the list now is Susan Kennedy, who just happens to be Chief of Staff to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. Maviglio ranks the Bay Area Democrat at #15 and chuckles when saying, “Heck, she’s doing the job anyway. Why not just run for the office and make it official?”
On the Republican side, most pundits believe Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner of the Bay Area is the clear favorite.
