Two women, both state senators, are running in California as Democratic candidates for Lieutenant Governor in the June 6 primary election. This officer is elected separately, so the governor and lt. governor may come from different parties.
The Lt. Gov. chairs the State Lands Commission, which enforces the California Environmental Quality Act, and sits on the Coastal Commission and the California Ocean Protection Council. S/he also chairs the Commission for Economic Development, is a Regent of the University of California as well as a trustee of the California State University System, sits on the California World Trade Commission, the California Emergency Council, and serves as appointed on various task forces.
Sen. Jackie Speier: 18 years in the state legislature, credited with numerous bills and hearings for improving health & welfare, worker’s comp reform, gender equality, reducing traffic congestion, eliminating government waste, and anti-crime (e.g., auto insurance fraud, prison reform, deregulation of sale of pepper spray, tracking sexual predators on parole). Her current State Agency Accountability Act provides whistle-blower protections for auditors as well as strict internal auditor standards.
Sen. Liz Figueroa: first elected to the state legislature in 1996, author of the law allowing patients to sue negligent HMO’s, and of a popular law creating the anti-telemarketing “Do Not Call List.” The daughter of immigrants from El Salvador, she is strongly pro-union and brings personal understanding to the issue of immigration. Her interviews on Spanish t.v. amount to free publicity.
Of note: Hispanics comprise nearly 35% of the state’s 2004 population, according to the Demographic Research Unit of the California Department of Finance (FYI, Asian: 11.6%, and Black: 6%).
Both Speier and Figueroa have championed women’s medical causes. Figueroa, for example, wrote a law requiring a 48-hour stay after mastectomies, upon learning of the HMO practice of same-day discharge. Speier, for example, created the state’s Breast and Cervical Cancer Screening Programs. Both candidates boast long lists of endorsements from elected officials. For what it’s worth, Speier has a much larger war-chest.
I prefer Speier because of the breadth and depth of her experience, as well as her politics. Figueroa may be looking at this realistically as an expected loss with the silver lining of name recognition for a future race. However, if Figueroa splits off votes so that Garamendi beats both of them in June, any apologies would come too late. It’s a tough picture.
