Here’s another roundup on the June Primary, this time with an emphasis on those who helped make victories possible in a number of key races – specifically those who were the lead strategists and pollsters and ground teams.  Complete results are available here.

On the Assembly side, kudos go to JohnsonClark Associates (who by the way won 11 of 12 contests in which they were involved statewide) for helping Anthony Adams, former District Director for San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors Chairman Bill Postmus, to a solid win in the 59th A.D.  The 59th is an evenly split L.A. County/San Bernardino County seat that’s being vacated by termed-out Dennis Mountjoy.  High-fives are also in order for Drew Mercy for managing the ground campaign.  Mercy has a strong track record, having also been the ground guy for Sharon Runner’s lopsided victory over former Assemblyman Phil Wyman for the 36th A.D. in 2002 as well as having served as on-site manager for Assemblymember Guy Houston’s re-election in 2004.  Congrats also go to general consultant Steve Presson for his outstanding independent expenditure work on Adams’ behalf from the High Desert Young Republicans.  Distant second-place finisher Barry Hartz self-consulted, as did third place candidate Susan Slater.  Both Hartz and Slater are from the San Bernardino County (and more specifically, San Bernardino County’s High Desert) side of the district.  Finishing an embarrassing fourth place was Chris Lancaster from the L.A. County side, whose effort was managed by Jim Freeman.  Freeman also cashiered Palmdale Mayor Jim Ledfrord in his ill-fated primary challenge against Assemblywoman Sharon Runner in the 36th district.  Ledford went down by a two-to-one margin, while Lancaster barely finished ahead of another L.A. County candidate who stopped actively campaigning months ago.  Perhaps Lancaster and Ledford would be comforted to know that the fees they paid Freeman helped him buy a new sports car (a photo of which he proudly emailed far and wide prior to Election Day) … but I doubt it.

Now on to the multimillion-dollar bloodbath that was the 65th A.D. GOP primary, otherwise known as the Consultants’ Full Employment Act Poster Campaign.  Congrats are in order for Retired Marine Colonel and Yucca Valley Mayor Paul Cook (lead consultant: Tab Berg, pollster: FR blogster Adam Probolsky).  Though he was regarded seriously by very few early on, Cook relied heavily upon his support from the San Bernardino County side of the district, including Board of Supervisors Chairman Bill Postmus, to notch a convincing surprise victory over three well-funded Riverside County candidates.  Coronado Communications (Jennifer Jacobs and FR blogster Duane Dichiara) ran the independent expenditures for the Inland Empire Young Republicans on Cook’s behalf.  This race, along with Senator Tom Harman’s victory, helped further establish Coronado as a top-tier firm.  See my more detailed Election Day analysis on this race here.

On the State Senate side, although there were no competitive Republican primaries in San Bernardino County, the Dems had a lively contest in the 32nd Senate District.  Three-term incumbent Assemblymember Gloria Negrete-McLeod of the 61st District bested one-termer Joe Baca Jr. from the 62nd A.D. (61.6% to 38.4%).  Chalk up a victory for L.A.-based consultant Parke Skelton, who matched wits with Sacramento-based Richie Ross.  Skelton, who previously guided L.A.-area Demo pols Antonio Villaraigosa and Congressman Adam Schiff to recent wins, had an impressive win here with Negrete-McLeod in what many observers thought would be a close contest with Baca Jr. (Note: Two days after the younger Joe Baca’s defeat, his father, Congressman Joe Baca, told the Riverside Press Enterprise that Republicans were secretly backing the liberal Negrete-McLeod because she would be easier for the GOP candidate to defeat come November.  Interesting theory, but there’s one small problem with it: no Republican candidate filed for the seat.)

And while we’re talking about the Bacas and Ross, another Ross client went down to defeat June 6 when Jeremy Baca lost to Wilmer Amina Carter of Rialto.  Baca’s $300,000 treasury and a veritable army of political management talent (Ross and ground campaign chief Walter Hughes) couldn’t handle Carter, who was seven years removed from public service as a former local school board member.  Carter raised just $60,000 and relied on mostly locals for guidance, yet she was able to overcome the youngest Baca candidate rather convincingly (58.1% to 41.9%).  All in all, not a good day for Ross in the state’s largest county, where six years ago his incumbent client Supervisor Kathy Davis went down to defeat by challenger Bill Postmus.

JohnsonClark should also be commended for their outstanding work for Michelle Steel for Board of Equalization.  Steel beat termed-out Assemblyman Ray Haynes in San Bernardino County, which is noteworthy considering that Haynes calls the Inland Empire home.  Special recognition is also in order for Mike Richman, who ran an aggressive campaign for Steel in San Bernardino County.
 
Finally, the local race that attracted the most attention was the campaign for San Bernardino County Assessor.  Finishing a strong first by 14 points over a twelve-year incumbent was my boss, Bill Postmus, whose campaign was run by Presson, with Adam Aleman running the ground campaign.  Presson and Aleman will continue guiding Postmus to an overwhelmingly likely victory in the November runoff.  Presson also ran the independent expenditure campaign on behalf of the West Valley Young Republicans and the High Desert Young Republicans to help 31 of 32 Postmus-backed candidates win seats on the San Bernardino County Republican Central Committee – a 97% success rate.  Suffice it to say Postmus (pollster: Steve Kinney) probably has a good shot at re-election as County GOP Charman if he wants it.
 
Congratulations again to those who won on June 6th.  If I missed someone, let me know by using the comments feature below.

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 29th, 2006 at 12:00 am and is filed under Blog Posts.