Wally Edge's blog

In the race for Mayor of Fresno, City Councilman Henry Perea had a five point lead over Ashley Swearengin in a new SurveyUSA/Action News poll.  Perea leads 30%-25%, with Tom Boyajian in third place with 11%.  Two months ago, Perea’s lead was 16 percentage points.

Former State Sen. Jackie Speier is the front runner to replace the late Tom Lantos in Congress
When voters head to the polls on April 8 to fill the U.S. Congress seat formerly occupied by Tom Lantos, the fourteen-term San Mateo Democrat who passed away in February, it is a pretty safe bet they will select former State Senator Jackie Speier.

“Jackie Speier is assumed to win, and she probably will,” said Barry Hermanson, a Green Party candidate who is running against Speier for the seat.

As Jim Ross, a Bay Area-based Democratic strategist put it, “if the sun rises on April 8th, Jackie Speier will replace Tom Lantos.”

Speier, who served two terms in the state Senate after holding seats in the California Assembly and the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors, faces token opposition for the seat. But she seems intent on making sure all the bases are covered.

Will San Francisco voters side with Mayor Gavin Newsom or the progressive-majority Board of Supervisors in June when they vote on a series of ballot initiatives in the June? The Mayor and the Supervisors are on different sides of Propositions F and G , and even on Proposition E, amendments to the PUC commission that some insiders suggest ought not be controversial.

The race for the Republican nomination for Congress in the 4th district includes two of the 135 candidates who ran in the 2003 gubernatorial recall election: State Sen. Tom McClintock, who finished third with 13.5% of the vote, and Theodore Terbolizard, aka Terbo Ted, a Ron Paul for President backer who withdrew just before the vote.  Terbo Ted made the news last month after his arrest on DUI charges.