In the Republican race to replace the termed-out Governator, Assemblyman Van Tran shows who he’s behind: State Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner.
Today, Tran accompanied Poizner on a campaign stop with Asian-American businesses in Orange County. That’s Tran to the left in the picture, with Poizner.
Poizner is a foreign-affairs guru who made his fortune in Silicon Valley. He’s best known for plunking down $2.5 million of his own money to defeat Proposition 93, a term-limit reform proposal that would have reduced the total amount of time state legislators could serve in either the Assembly or the State Senate down to 12 years from 14 years. Proposition 93 was defeated 54% to 46%.
To date, three Republicans have declared their candidacy. In addition to Poizner, there’s Meg Whitman, the former CEO of eBay who’s embroiled in a little controversy about whether and how often she’s voted over the years. And there’s former Congressman Tom Campbell, once named the Best State Senator of California. A former Stanford law professor and dean of the Haas Business School at UC Berkeley, Campbell is one of a few Republicans to ever win office in the Bay Area.
Campbell’s small-government politics, however, also leads him to reject government interference in such social and personal issues as homosexuality, and OC Republicans don’t think much of him.
Statewide, a recent poll quoted by the Washington Post here shows Whitman in the lead at 22%, Campbell in second place at 20%, and Poizner coming in third at 9%.
On the Democratic side, San Francisco Mayor Gary Newsom has declared, as has Jerry Brown, the former Governor, former Mayor of Oakland, and current Attorney General.
Good luck, Tran!
ummm…state insurance commissioner, this office is a mouthpiece for the industry. the last person ever to combat the industry was John Garamendi, and they replaced him with Quackenbush. that guy was the waterboy for the companies and the biggest joke there was.
that’s a big jump going from an obscure office to governor…tuanphucnguyen, i agree, good luck riding this dead horse or with whatever…
What I want to know is where the hell are the two protoges? Should they not be in the background holding the SVN flag and waving for the photo op?
Did anybody see our venerable assemblyman wear his lapel with the SVN flag as seen in previous pictures? Is that stint getting old? Or has the fad moved on?
Was the Insurance Commissioner taken to the recent crash site to explain how insured’s premium is utilized to cover for damages and bodily injury settlement?
Did Poizner see the new Republican field office, Cytrist, and the new office manager, Amanda, and her bio on myspace?
So much to cover in such short amount of time – the man needs to move to OC and hang with the boys and learn the ropes.
Lydia,
Did you clean up your vomit in the toilet after you throw up? It smells in here.
Lan Ngo,
You should get used to that smell by now . . . I’m sure it still smell better than Van’s toilet!