State Senate leader casts doubt on lieutenant governor nominee Abel Maldonado

State Sen. Abel Maldonado’s nomination as California’s next lieutenant governor may already be in trouble.

Minutes after a Los Angeles event this morning, with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger hailing the moderate Santa Maria Republican as his pick for the office,  state Senate Leader Darrell Steinberg (D-Sacramento) released a statement expressing “grave doubts” about the choice. Maldonado needs the approval of the Democratic-dominated Legislature to take the post. 

Steinberg cited the $2-million cost of the special election that would be required to fill Maldonado’s Senate seat, suggesting the money could be better spent scaling back recent fee hikes at state colleges and universities.

The Senate leader, under pressure to keep the post open for Democrats running for lieutenant governor themselves in next year’s election, also suggested he would like to see the job left vacant.

“It may be both fiscally and politically prudent to permit the people to make their own selection for this statewide office next year and avoid the expense of a costly special election,” his statement said.

--Evan Halper in Sacramento
 

Comments

[donalds]

I agree. California is broke. Let the people vote and save the State much needed money.

[Bill]

He's not a real republican. We need a true conservative republican. Lets stop having a 2 faced leaders.

[Michel]

Typical Sacramento weasels playing politics. Its not like Maldonado is all that great but they want to save the seat for the "party" or one of their hack friends who got term limited out of his last job.

[Bob the Builder]

Since when is Steinberg concerned about being fiscally prudent?

[ferenc]

steinberg is againts maldonado. i guess the jews don't want the mexicans to advance.

[Fed Up]

Oh, I'm sure if the nominee was a Democrat, there would be no issue at all. But then, the Republicans don't like this character, either.

[Gary]

Can't we just eliminate the office of LG altogether? Seriously.

[cooper]

I wonder if he'll just be just as bad as Bustamonte. Just another corrupt politico making his way up the ladder.

[doug]

Politics as usual. Democrats holding up appointments for party gain and to block what the Republicans want. Republicans do the same. Anything to slow down what happens in Sacto. I say make term limits shorter and then throw them all out of state politics forever.

[ca girl]

Give me a break. Since when has any democrat ever been concerned about saving money. What a joke!!

[linda]

This is just a political ploy to save the job for a Democrat of their choice like L A's own Janice Hahn who's already running for the job of Lt. Governor. It's worth having Maldonado in just to stop her, and I'm a Democrat, but she's just a grandstanding birdbrain who's only in office because of her father's name.

[Thomas Cares]

This is kind of funny, to me. I'm sure if there were a sudden vacancy in a congressional district, where a soon-to-be-termed out democratic senator felt certain they could win, they would go for that seat in a heartbeat, without giving any thought to the cost of the special election that would be needed to replace them.

Did anyone ask Duvall not to resign, to save the expense the two special elections that have become necessary to replace him?

What about Mark Ridley-Thomas running for County Supervisor, without resigning his senate seat, in advance, forcing a special election; or Curren Price running for that senate seat, forcing a special election in his old Assembly District?

What about the ~$80 million that was spent on having a statewide presidential primary (with a measure to extend legislative term limits), in addition to our June primary for state offices, in 2008?

What about the ~$80 million that was spent on the may 19th statewide special election, which accomplished nothing other than prohibiting legislative salary increases in times when the state has a deficit?

What about the ~$4 million dollars that was spent to modify the high speed rail bond measure, after the voter information guides had already been sent out?

I don't think Senate Democrats minded these expenses so much, and, honestly, neither do I - the costs of elections are a necessary part of having a legitimate government (specifically, let me be clear that I couldn't care less, and don't criticize in the least, that Ridley-Thomas's pursuit of a County Supervisor seat, forced a special election, or that Curren Price's pursuit of Ridley-Thomas's senate seat forced another special election (which I ran in)).

But, I also don't think anyone really cares so much about the cost of a special election to replace Maldonado. If Steinberg's objecting, I think we could accept the postulate that, probably for a number of reasons, he simply doesn't want a Republican Lt. Governor.

(I really do wish `electeds` could just be honest about things - Did anyone really want Denham recalled because he accepted 1 out of 2 pay raises, that he was entitled to? Was Prop 93 really about "reduc[ing] permissible state legislative service"? In the long term, whether for an officeholder or a party, honesty really pays off, because it enables people to trust you - it's not that hard of a concept.)

[politicalzoo]

With the track record Mr. Govenator has I wouldn't trust him to pick my nose.

[RabidinL.A.]

Agrees. Wait a bit and let US decide.
@Doug - yours is the only comment so far which makes any sense, bravo! This partisan bull has gone way too far. I really don't care which "party" they're in, as long as they're HONEST and carry out their duty with integrity. Perhaps I live on another planet...as honesty and integrity are the two factors which simply don't exist for any politician on this earth. Our state legislature definitely needs to be dumped, every last useless one of them.

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I wonder if he'll just be just as bad as Bustamonte. Just another corrupt politico making his way up the ladder.

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Can't we just eliminate the office of LG altogether? Seriously

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Oh, I'm sure if the nominee was a Democrat, there would be no issue at all. But then, the Republicans don't like this character, either.

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