California State Candidates
Governor
Bill Simon, Republican
Currently vice chairman of Catholic Charities of Los Angeles, the largest private network of social service organizations in the nation, Simon also carries these accomplishments under his belt: “Success as a businessman, former assistant United States attorney, charitable leader, social commentator, national TV talk show host, husband and father.” Pushing fiscal responsibility, education improvements and a rebuilding of California’s transportation systems as his main issues, Simon is giving Davis a run for his money.
Gray Davis, Democrat *
Gray Davis, who pulled a major victory four years ago when he became California’s first Democratic governor in 16 years, may have suffered some hits for the state’s energy problems, but he has made an incredible number (nearly 200) of Asian Pacific American appointments, from high-ranking state positions like Insurance Commissioner Harry Low to the recent appointments of the first Korean American and Vietnamese American women judges in Southern California. Davis has also accomplished a fair amount in terms of reforming hate crimes legislation, including supporting a bill that would create an Asian Pacific Islander Anti-Hate Crimes Program.
Peter Camejo, Green
At 61, Peter Camejo — a first-generation Venezuelan American — has an impressive record of fighting for environmental and social justice. He ran for president in 1976 as a socialist, and is now the chair and co-founder of Progressive Asset Management Inc., which promotes socially responsible investments.
Lt. Governor
Cruz Bustamante, Democrat *
Bustamante is the first Latino elected to statewide office in California in more than 120 years. He remains the highest-ranking Latino officeholder in the United States. He has focused on education and diversity issues during his term, and other than an unfortunate slip of the tongue at a Black History Month speech last year, his record is relatively unblemished.
Bruce McPherson, Republican
McPherson is that rare breed of Santa Cruz Republican and has served on the state Senate for the past nine years. A longtime advocate for education, he has helped reduce class sizes and establish tougher graduation requirements. He also leads the fight on public safety measures, something he was involved in even before the tragic mugging death of his only son in San Francisco.
Donna Warren, Green
A Southern California activist who has worked aggressively on the campaign to amend the three strikes policy.
Attorney General
Bill Lockyer, Democrat *
This native Californian and former teacher established a Civil Rights Section as one of the largest state offices in the nation, helped expand services to disability cases and immigration fraud victims and opened an Office of Immigrant Assistance. Soon after assuming office as attorney general, Lockyer established a Hate Crimes Task Force to develop strategies for preventing and addressing instances of hate violence in California. He also holds innovative strategies on energy and budget problems.
Dick Ackerman, Republican
This Orange County legislator believes that his experience as a working lawyer for nearly 40 years gives him an edge over Lockyer. He wants to move away from Lockyer’s record of going after businesses and instead focus on providing local law enforcement with the tools it needs. About civil rights versus heightened security, Ackerman said: “I think people around the country realize that they have to give up some civil liberties in order to protect ourselves from the bad guys.”
Secretary of State
Kevin Shelley, Democrat
Current representative for District 12, Kevin Shelley has been named Legislator of the Year four times in his career. A major innovator for Sunshine Laws, Shelley also has a strong record for election reform, starting when he helped to establish the San Francisco Ethics Commission. His goals for secretary of state are to support electoral technology and to increase voter participation.
Keith Olberg, Republican
With a Ph.D. in ancient political philosophy and constitutional law, Olberg’s interest in democracy seems to go deeper than your average politician. As secretary of state, he wants to replace outdated voting systems and accelerate on-line disclosure of campaign contributions and spending.
Larry Shoup, Green
A part of the Independent Progressive Politics Network (IPPN) and a member of the National Writers Union and the AFL-CIO, Oakland resident Shoup wants to stop corporate control of candidates, and points out that both Shelley and Olberg accepted thousands of dollars from Enron. Instead he pushes publicly financed campaigns and instant run-off voting.
Controller
Steve Westly, Democrat
Westly, senior vice president at eBay and former-professor at Stanford’s Graduate School of Business, believes his business background will be key for this position as chief fiscal watchdog for the state. Interestingly, Westly is so proud of his APA wife that he features her centrally on his campaign pamphlet, saying her experience as a Chinese immigrant was one of the main reasons he was inspired to run for office.
Tom McClintock, Republican
With a strong record of conservative fiscal policy in the California Legislature, McClintock would like to reorganize the controller’s office to produce serious reforms, and create a waste commission to identify waste in the budget and dispose of it. He stands by his unwavering support of the California taxpayer.
Treasurer
Phil Angelides, Democrat*
Angelides’s key goals as treasurer are to protect taxpayer funds, to cost effectively finance schools and other infrastructure that California needs to succeed in the 21st century and to invest more in California communities. Under Angelides’s leadership, innovative investment policies and programs have been advanced to bolster California’s long-term economic strength.
Greg Conlon, Republican
A CPA for 40 years, Conlon believes the state needs to get out of debt and out of the energy business. He worked for 12 years as an accountant with Self-Help for the Elderly in San Francisco’s Chinatown. He is proud of the fact that he can work with anyone and points out that he is one of the only Republicans who received standing ovations by the Democratic Senate.
Jeanne Marie Rosenmeier, Green
A CPA and founder of her own accounting firm, this candidate supports independently owned and operated companies that are socially responsible, as well as cooperatives and public enterprises that distribute resources and control to more people through democratic participation. She promises to push diligently for socially responsible investments to help increase California’s returns.
Insurance Commissioner
John Garamendi, Democrat
As the first insurance commissioner of California, Garamendi reduced homeowner, auto and worker compensation rates, and reduced worker compensation, auto and healthcare fraud. In 1992, the Insurance Department under Garamendi was the first to regulate life insurers that pay pre-death benefits to terminally ill people, particulary those with AIDS.
Gary Mendoza, Republican
The former deputy mayor of Los Angeles, Mendoza is responsible for forming a leading consumer protection agency with jurisdiction over HMOs, securities and franchise offerings, credit unions and mortgage bankers.
Board of Equalization Member, District 1
Carole Migdin, Democrat
Migdin, who is termed out after this year in her Assembly seat, is looking to stay in office with this position that is responsible for tax assessment throughout the state.
Mark Bendick, Republican
This San Bruno native has a lot of experience in the tax field with 10 years of experience in the hi-tech industry, Big Five accounting and taxation experience with the Board of Equalization.
State Senate, District 8
Jackie Speier, Democrat *
Speier serves as chair of the Senate Insurance Committee and the Committee on Government Reform. She wrote legislation protecting whistleblowers who have helped the state identify government waste and fraud. She was first elected to the Assembly in 1986.
Dennis Zell, Republican
Self-identified as “ a ‘child of the Reagan Revolution’ and life-long Republican, I am a fiscal conservative, and a social moderate who believes that the government should stay out of the boardroom and the bedroom.” This South Bay lawyer says that the community asked him to run after a failed attempt at a local school board seat.
Assembly District 12
Leland Yee, Democrat
San Francisco’s lone APA supervisor is looking to head to Sacramento. Lee came out ahead in the primary, and his long-standing reputation as an elected official first on San Francisco’s school board and then on the Board of Supervisors has him in the lead for Assembly.
Howard Epstein, Republican *
Currently the vice chair for Finance, Howard was the unopposed Republican candidate for the 12th State Assembly seat in the November 2000 election.
Michael Denny, Libertarian
If elected, businessman Denny says he will be the voice “of our local communities and small businesses [that] are not being heard. The incumbents do not represent us and are wasting our time and resources. It is time for a change.”
Assembly District 13
Mark Leno, Democrat
San Francisco Supervisor Leno leads the primary election for this seat. A strong advocate of language access and transgender rights issues, Leno has the best attendance record on the Board.
Gail Neira, Republican
As Nation’s first Latina news publisher-owner, Neira was the first Latina who served as a public affairs attache for an Asian embassy in the 1970s, the first and youngest Latina Republican major campaign co-chair and San Francisco’s first Latina with cultural civic volunteerism. Neira wants to advocate reform policies/legislation and to pare down government spending before raising taxes or issuing bonds to support sundry projects.
Superintendent of Public Instruction
Jack O’Connell, Democrat
After serving nearly two decades in the California state Legislature, where he often spearheaded education legislation, O’Connell wants to head the education system for the state. A former teacher, O’Connell helped reduce the vote threshold for school bonds, raise teacher salaries and reduce class size.
Katherine Smith, Republican
This Orange County School Board Member, self-dubbed “Super Kathy,” has a long list of accomplishments that include posting the “Golden Rule” in each classroom in her district, expanding “academic attire” for public schools and teaching manners and etiquitte in the classroom. She wants to bring these ideas to a statewide level.
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