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I strongly urge everyone to vote for McClintock and to NOT vote for Jackie Speier. See the latest blog entry for details.
http://www.insidebayarea.com/ci_3467450?source=rss
Speier, Figueroa funds growing
Lieutenant governor hopefuls' war chests increasing as June primary approaches
Inside Bay Area
As the June primary draws near, the race for California's lieutenant governor is heating up, and state Sen. Liz Figueroa of Fremont is spending money almost as fast as she gets it.
Figueroa, a Democrat who is hoping to clinch the seat and become California's first female lieutenant governor, collected about $392,000 in 2005 and spent nearly $320,000 during the 12-month period, according to campaign finance statements.
Her campaign war chest now holds more than $537,000 but is nowhere close to matching
that of her competitor, state Sen. Jackie Speier, D-Hillsborough, whose account holds roughly $2.27 million, buoyed by more than $586,000 from her state Senate campaign.
Speier hauled in nearly $1.3 million in campaign contributions in 2005 and spent roughly $360,000, making her the fund-raising front-runner in the race.
Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi, another
Democratic contender for the post, is in second, with roughly
$853,000 in his war chest.
The winner of the Democratic primary in June is expected to face off against state Sen. Tom McClintock, a Republican from Thousand Oaks who ran for governor in the 2003 recall election. McClintock's campaign account boasts $1 million, giving him a significant fund-raising lead against fellow Republican contenders, including state Sen. Bill Morrow.
The lieutenant governor's race is considered a down-ticket election likely to be decided by the amount of money a candidate raises and his or her endorsements and campaign literature because most of the candidates are not household names in California, said Bruce Cain, a political science professor and director of the Institute of Governmental Studies at the University of California, Berkeley.
The position carries little political power and "is more important as a political launching pad than it is as an office of governance," Cain said. "At best, the lieutenant governor is usually irrelevant."
The lieutenant governor acts as governor when the governor is out of state and serves as president of the state Senate but only has tie-breaking powers.
Only two of California's lieutenant governors have won a gubernatorial race, most recently in 1998, when Gray Davis was elected to the post. Seven have stepped into the position when a governor has died or resigned.
According to campaign finance statements, Figueroa has spent roughly $114,000 on fund-raising events and about $74,000 on campaign consultants since she began running for the seat.
Other significant expenditures include $28,000 for polling and survey research, and about $21,000 for campaign workers' salaries. She also spent about $8,200 on campaign literature and mailings.
Most of her campaign money is coming from Sacramento, where contributors have donated a whopping $222,991. Next in line are donors from Fremont and San Francisco, contributing about $44,000 and $42,500, respectively.
Zenith Insurance Co., the California Medical Association and a branch of the California Dental Political Action Committee are her top three donors, each giving more than $10,000 to the campaign.
In the Tri-City area, leading donors include Fremont Bank; New United Motor Manufacturing Inc.'s good government fund; and Anmol S. Mahal, a Fremont doctor who is president-elect of the California Medical Association.
Figueroa is serving her second term in the state Senate and cannot run for re-election because of term limits. She lives in Sunol and began her political career in 1985, when she was appointed to the Union Sanitary District board. She also has served two terms in the state Assembly, beginning in 1994.
For more information about campaign finance statements, visit the secretary of state's Web site at http://www.ss.ca.gov.
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