John Garamendi, Jr to Run for the State Senate

Inside sources are suggesting that John Garamendi Jr., Vice Chancellor at the University of California at Merced and son of Lt. Governor John Garamendi will join Assemblywoman Lois Wolk as candidate for the Democratic nomination for the 5th Senate District of California.

Last week the Sacramento Bee reported:

On the Demo side, the names of Assemblywoman Lois Wolk of Davis and UC Merced Vice Chancellor John Garamendi Jr. have been thrown in the pot. On the GOP side, political watchers who know a thing or two about the district have offered up the names of Assemblyman Greg Aghazarian of Stockton and Dean Andal, a former legislator and Board of Equalization member, and a current board trustee of the Lincoln Unified School District in Stockton.

The 5th SD, currently represented by termed-out Dem Mike Machado, covers parts of Sacramento, San Joaquin, Solano and Yolo counties, with about half the voting populace in San Joaquin County. Registration is about 46 percent Dem, 33 percent Reep and 17 percent independent.

If the race holds true to early form, it could be to the 2008 Senate campaigns what the 34th SD was to the 2006 derby, when the race between eventual Dem winner Lou Correa and Reep Lynn Daucher wasn't decided until two weeks after the election, and the victory margin was less than 1 percent.

In 2004, Democrat Mike Machado won an extremely narrow victory over Stockton Mayor Gary Podesto. This time figures to be an extremely close race. Garamendi, Jr. has lived in Davis in the past and his wife is a faculty member at the UC Davis School of Medicine's Department of Public Health Sciences. This figures to be a tough fight for the nomination as Wolk is a longtime officeholder in Yolo County first as Davis City Councilmember and Mayor, then as County Supervisor, and since 2002 as Assemblywoman for the 8th Assembly District.

---Doug Paul Davis reporting