Mike Machado

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) 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.

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.

Flying somewhat below the radar of hot legislative races this fall, the 5th State Senatorial District race is an unusual contest for one reason.

That reason is that in a blue-tilting state in an election year that's also seen as favorable to Democrats, it represents a potential GOP pickup, one that could be highly important in future statehouse battles.

Capitol Weekly has released its second annual ranking of ideology among state legislators, based on their votes on bills that have come up over the past year.

Seven Assembly members, all Republicans, got a score of zero on a scale of zero to 100 on how liberal their voting record appeared to be. Four Republican state Senators also received that score.

At the other end, 16 Assembly members and 10 state Senators - all Democrats - received a score of 100, indicating they voted in liberal fashion as often as possible.

Assemblyman Greg Aghazarian (R-Stockton)In a state Senate race that may represent the only Republican chance to pick up a seat in that chamber this fall, Assemblyman Greg Aghazarian (R-Stockton) is outpacing his opponent in campaign cash.

In the fundraising period that ended June 30, Aghazarian raised more than $565,000, and had more than $1 million in cash on hand, according to a statement from his campaign.

By comparison, Assemblywoman Lois Wolk (D-Davis) raised more than $76,000 during the six-week fundraising period, and has $185,000 in available campaign funds.

Republican Greg Aghazarian has an almost 5-1 fundraising edge over Democrat Lois Walk in the 5th district Senate race
In the race for an open State Senate in District 5, where Democrat Mike Machado is term-limited, Republican Assemblyman Greg Aghazarian had a big fundraising lead: his $501,642 warchest is substantially more than the $108,263 Democratic Assemblywoman Lois Wolk has in the bank, according to campaign finance records filed with the Secretary of State on Monday.

Republicans view the 5th district as one of their best chances for a pickup. The San Joaquin-Solano-Yolo-Sacramento seat went Democratic in 2004 by a narrow 52%-48% margin.

Republicans view the 5th district as one of their best chances for a pickup of a Democratic State Senate seat, where term-limited Democratic State Sen. Mike Machado won the San Joaquin-Solano-Yolo-Sacramento seat seat 52%-48% in 2004 over Stockton Mayor Gary Podesto. The 2008 race features a matchup between a pair of term-limited members of the State Assembly: Democrat Lois Wolk and Republican Greg Aghazarian.