Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has just chosen State Senator Abel Maldonado to be Lieutenant Governor, replacing the outgoing John Garamendi, recently elected to Congress in a special election.  With Democrats salivating to elect one of their own in his moderate coastal State Senate seat, Maldonado might have been the most likely Republican choice to survive confirmation.  Some reports are that this could set off a chain reaction where Assembly GOP leader Sam Blakeslee vacates runs for Maldonado’s current State Senate seat.  That in turn, might set up a scrum for a new Assembly GOP leader to lead California’s caucus through what will be a challenging cycle with both opportunities and pitfalls.  Even further, this could set in motion a GOP primary for Lieutenant Governor that is as much a fight for the future direction of California’s GOP as the governor’s primary.

http://www.sacbee.com/capitolandcalifornia/story/2343266.html

Tags: Blakeslee, Denham, Garamendi, Maldonado, Schwarzenegger

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 24th, 2009 at 2:51 am and is filed under 2010 Elections. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.