I figure if I want to climb higher than “55” on the CapWeekly's Top 100 list, I need to beat CW's Anthony York to publishing hot rumors. And this little tidbit is just that, a little bit of “water coolor” banter that makes for fun reading.

So John Garamendi, who is in some obscure statewide office — oh yeah, Lt. Governor — is now a declared candidate for Congress in the East Bay/Delta area, where Democrat Ellen Tauscher has vacated her seat upon being appointed into the Obama Administration.

If not the favorite, Garamendi is no doubt a very strong candidate to take that seat, and head off to Congress (ugh) — with all due deference to the two Democrat state legislators who are also running.

So… This leads to the next question — if later this year, the Lt. Governor steps down to head to Capitol Hill, then who would Governor Schwarzenegger appoint to fill out the unexpired balance of Garamendi's term?

First and foremost, with this Governor, I would hardly put any money down on him necessarily appointing a Republican to this post. Actually, no matter who is appointed, that person must be confirmed by the Democrat-controlled State Legislature…

So the rumor de jeur is that Arnold might actually tap controversial Assembly Republican Leader Mike Villines to that office. The theory is that this would be a confirmable pick, with Democrats seeing Villines' recent support for massive tax increases at making him palatable, as GOPers go. Of course this would also relieve Villines of having to defend his post from those who think his support for the aforementioned taxes should necessitate his stepping down as Assembly Republican Leader.

A variation on this theory is that the Governor instead taps former Senate GOP Leader and tax hiking Republican Dave Cogdill for the post. This would free up a State Senate seat for Villines to pursue.

There's the conspiracy theory — and I thought I would share it with you…

Perhaps my CRP Board colleague Shawn Steel will send a letter of recommendation to the Governor on Villines' behalf!

Now if York and KQED radio's John Myers discuss this in their weekly podcast, let's see if I get some credit for first putting it out in the public forum ;-)

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 23rd, 2009 at 12:00 am and is filed under Blog Posts.