Lloyd Levine

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.

Democratic Assembly candidate Stuart Waldman did everything right. A veteran who came home and went to law school. He worked for two Assemblymembers and, instead of running for Assembly 6 years ago when a seat became open - stood aside when the party leadership anointed another and told him "next time, you're the guy". He became chief of staff to the eventual winner, Lloyd Levine, who endorsed Stuart as LL began his own campaign for State Senate. But the fabled machine of powerful Congressmen Henry Waxman and Howard Berman decided that Howard's COS, Bob Blumenfield, should get the nod.