2010

SAN FRANCISCO - A new Field Poll released Wednesday shows that should U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein decide to run for governor in 2010 she would begin the race enjoying some decided advantages.

The survey shows that Feinstein enjoys the highest amount of name recognition and that among all voters polled, she received a 50 percent "favorable" rating and an even higher 70 percent favorable rating among Democrats.

RIALTO - Assembly Majority Leader Alberto Torrico (D-Newark) expects Democrats to pick up at least two Republican seats on Nov. 4. Democrats currently hold 48 seats in the State Assembly, six shy of a two-thirds majority, which would allow them to pass crucial legislation without Republican cooperation.

The campaign to beat a recall attempt against State Sen. Jeff Denham hasn’t decided how it will spend any leftover funds from the election.

Kevin Spillane, a spokesman for the anti-recall effort, said officials will first concentrate on paying off campaign expenses with money from the fund created to beat the recall, Friends of Jeff Denham Against the Recall.

“We’ve got some overhead that’s still being taken care of,” Spillane said. He expected all outstanding debts to be resolved in about a month.

Duf Sundheim, the former chair of the California Republican Party who is heading up a new independent organization designed to recruit top Republican candidates to run for statewide offices, told PolitickerCA.com today that former U.S. Rep. Tom Campbell would be a strong 2010 Republican gubernatorial contender.

"There are people who think he would be a strong candidate, and people have expressed that to me," said Sundheim, who declined to answer when asked if he had engaged in private discussions with Cambell about a 2010 campaign.

Rob Stutzman has not yet signed up to work for Meg Whitman, the former EBay CEO who is considering a run for governor, the highly regarded Republican operative told PolitickerCA.com today. Stutzman directed California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's communications shop before running Mitt Romney's campaign in the Golden State.

"I'm not doing work for Whitman," said Stutzman. "I'm firmly nowhere in the governor's race."

With the dust clearing after last week's letter-writing spat between Lt. Gov. John Garamendi and Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner, analysts today said both sides saw the squabble as an opportunity to gear up for statewide runs.

"They are two potential rivals for the governorship in 2010," said Allan Hoffenblum, editor of the California Target Book.

Analysts said that, for Garamendi, taking aim at Poizner's new insurance regulations, provided an opportunity to win attention from the media - something a lieutenant governor working under a Republican governor often has difficulty doing.

For Poizner, a pro-choice and pro-gay rights Republican, pushing back on Garamendi provided an opportunity to show state Republican Party activists he is willing to go on the offensive against a Democratic foe.