One of the things I love most about my friend Barbara Alby is her "I know something that you don’t know look" — which hasn’t changed in the nearly twenty years that I have known her. When I sat down briefly with Barbara last weekend at the California Republican Assembly’s 75th Anniversary Convention in Buena Park, and asked her about her campaign for Board of Equalization, she gave me "the look" when I asked her about her ballot designation. She told me that it was "a surprise" but that her choice for ballot designation would be very important to her campaign (along with her published statement in the ballot pamphlet).
As always, Barbara has a gift for understatement.
During the CRA Convention, it was obvious that State Senator George Runner was out-hustling her for what concluded in his endorsement by the CRA for his candidacy. Runner had a full campaign operation working the event. In contrast, with a peace of mind about her that was enviable Barbara was in what I would call a "happy place" quietly chatting with the many convention delegates).
It turns out that Barbara was actually working hard to subdue what should have been a Cheshire Cat grin — as she obviously knew that a game-changing event would be taking place soon that would dramatically impact the race for the "Republican" Board of Equalization seat currently held by conservative Bill Leonard.
The proverbial "other shoe" dropped this morning with the almost casual announcement in the Sacramento Bee’s Capitol Alert Blog "AM Alert" that Governor Schwarzenegger will be tapping Leonard to be his new head of the State Consumer Services Agency, a position which has been empty since GOPer Fred Aguiar was promoted to Deputy Chief of Staff and Senior Advisor to the Governor last November.
Of course, my first thought, selfishly, was what impact Leonard’s new role would have on his capacity here with us as a FlashReport blogger. Will the intractably conservative Leonard now be a cheerleader for Arnold Schwarzenegger? I guess we’ll see!
That having been said, under the State Constitution when a Board of Equalization seat becomes vacant, the BOE Member’s Chief Deputy becomes the Acting BOE Member. You’ll never guess who the Chief Deputy is for Bill Leonard — that’s right, Barbara Alby!
There is a significant electoral advantage to having the designation of "Acting Board of Equalization Member" next to your name on the ballot — something that neither former Assemblyman-turned-BOE Aide Alan Nakanishi nor State Senator George Runner will be able to place next to their names.
The outcome of the BOE contest is far from determined, and a lot of factors go into what results in a win in such a vast district (a quarter of the state’s population, and geographically even larger). But this news certainly buoys the candidacy of Barbara Alby.
It’s probably also worthy of note that you can expect that for the time that Alby is the Acting BOE Member (and beyond?), there will be a strong taxpayer advocate in the office, like we’ve had with Bill Leonard.
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