Just moments ago, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s office sent out a press release announcing that the big guy had tapped moderate Republican State Sen. Abel Maldonado of Santa Maria as California’s next lieutenant governor.
The lite governor’s office was open because the guy the voters put there, John Garamendi, recently was elected to Congress.
Anyway, Maldonado is known for subscribing to a moderate brand of GOP politics, much like the governor himself, and for being nakedly ambitious.
Earlier this year, he used his leverage as one of the few swing votes on the budget to extract a number of concessions from the entire State Legislature, including putting a measure on the ballot to legalize open primaries, which would help moderates like him.
Maldonado’s move to lite governor’s office will free up an opening in his State Senate seat, which is very competitive. It’s conceivable that Democrats could win his seat.
Meanwhile, Maldonado, who has said he would run for statewide office in 2010, is now going to be campaigning as the state’s incumbent lieutenant governor, which will give him a leg up against his Democratic competitors.
Anaheim Deputy Chief Craig Hunter has won the endorsement of a key activist group in his bid to unseat Sheriff Sandra Hutchens.
