Greg Aghazarian

After managing Assemblyman-elect Bill Berryhill to victory in the 26th district race, campaign manager Carl Fogliani will return to Sacramento as his chief of staff.

Fogliani, who was also chief of staff to Republican Berryhill's predecessor in the 26th, termed-out Assemblyman Greg Aghazarian (R-Stockton), said the move is a return to familiar territory.

The Police Officers Research Association dropped $30,000 into three heavily contested Assembly races Thursday, twice to benefit the Democratic candidate and once in favor of the Republican.

In Assembly Districts 10 and 15, the group spent $10,000 each to support respective Democrats Alyson Huber of El Dorado Hills and Joan Buchanan of Alamo with a slate mailer of suggested candidates to back.

A Democratic news and opinion website has asserted that state Republicans have pulled the plug on Assemblyman Greg Aghazarian's (R-Stockton) campaign for the 5th State Senate District seat.

In a posting on the California Majority Report website Wednesday, editor Donald Lathbury said both Democratic and Republican sources confirmed that the GOP has abandoned the race because Assembly member Lois Wolk  (D-Davis) is so far ahead in internal polls.

Assemblywoman Lois Wolk (D-Davis) should think more about her own modes of travel before she criticizes others, said the campaign for her state Senate seat opponent Wednesday.

Assemblyman Greg Aghazarian's campaign put out a release noting that when Wolk was first elected to the Assembly in 2002, she drove a Lincoln Town Car - at taxpayer expense - before giving it up after bad press about the car.

Assemblywoman Lois Wolk (D-Davis) is paying more for her television commercials so that she can avoid a requirement that campaign commercials must feature the face of the candidate who pays for them, according to the campaign of her opponent, Assemblyman Greg Aghazarian.

Normally, campaign commercials are charged at a lesser rate than other types of commercials, a difference Aghazarian's campaign said can be 20 to 50 percent less, depending on the TV station.

But to qualify for the lesser rate, a candidate's face must appear in the commercial at some point.

Greg Aghazarian lets his kids illustrate a Sacramento problem for him in a new ad in his campaign for the 5th State Senate District seat.

The ad features Aghazarian's three sons playing a game called "Legislature" in which one son immediately declares, "It's all about me! It's all about me!" while another puts his fingers in his ears and says, "I can't hear you," and then, "Talk to the hand."

Aghazarian then appears and says the game represents how the legislature often operates, and makes a call for legislators to be elected on a nonpartisan basis.

Assembly candidate Bill Berryhill has received endorsements from the National Federation of Independent Businesses and the Modesto Chamber of Commerce in his 26th district race.

The executive director for NFIB/California said in a press release that Berryhill was the right candidate to help small businesses start, develop and grow.

State Senate candidate Greg Aghazarian launched a campaign commercial this week with a bold, if unlikely, call for change: Make the state legislature a nonpartisan body.

Aghazarian, a termed-out Republican assemblyman from Stockton, describes the current legislature as a broken system in the 30-second commercial.

Lois Wolk's campaign for state Senate launched an ad last week that takes direct aim at opponent Greg Aghazarian's collection of per diem money as an assemblyman.

The 30-second ad tells how Assemblyman Aghazarian (R-Stockton) has collected daily per diem payments of $170 that are designed to pay for lodging expenses for state legislators who live far from Sacramento.

Democrats gained registration in some closely watched legislative and congressional districts in Northern California but lost registration elsewhere, according to a 60-day report released Friday by the California Secretary of State.

The Sept. 4 report, timed to be 60 days before the Nov. 4 election, shows the percentage of registered Democrats up in two closely watched seats: Assembly District 15 and the 4th Congressional District.