Assembly Republican Caucus Chairman Russ Bogh (R-Yucaipa) has endorsed Anthony Adams (pictured left) in the 59th Assembly District Republican primary. And by way of further update on the contest for this equally divided L.A. County/San Bernardino County seat, I want to provide some additional thoughts on the heels of Mike Spence’s excellent post yesterday. Read it here. (Mike doesn’t have a dog in this fight. I do — It’s Adams.)
The two candidates with six figures cash-on-hand are
Chris Lancaster 
($150,000), from LaVerne in L.A. County
(pictured right), and Adams ($108,000), from the high desert in San Bernardino County. Note, however, that of their cash-on-hand, Adams has $40,000 in personal loans while Lancaster has $100,000 in personal loans.
Mike’s "wild card" issues from his post included: Barry Hartz, a desert transplant from the San Gabriel Valley, and how much he will raise and spend. Also, how far will the Mountjoy political operation go for him? To the first question I will offer my two cents. Hartz has demonstrated a complete disregard of, or lack of knowledge about, what it takes to win elections at this level. Further, since Hartz is apparently trying to build a political base largely on his opposition to Bill Postmus, the local County Supervisor and chairman of the County GOP (also my boss), my question would be: How far will the Postmus operation go to oppose Hartz and help Adams? To the second question I would add another: What does the Bogh endorsement mean in the way of the McCarthy leadership team’s involvement?
Mr. Spence also humorously noted that in his search of the Secretary of State Political Reform Division’s reporting system he found a PAC called "Committee to Oppose Anthony Adams". I looked into this, and it turns out the PAC was created by one Allen Devan. Several months ago, Devan created the "committee" while also planning on running as an independent in the 59th. Devan is a former San Bernardino County employee who is convinced that pretty much everyone in county government, and politics and government in general, is out to get him. One former county supervisor obtained a restraining order against him. Adams ended up on Devan’s "list" when he was unable to substantiate any of Devan’s grievances against the county (Adams at the time was District Director for Postmus, the new County Supervisor), and Adams informed him that he was unwilling to waste additional staff time looking into said grievances.
Anyway, Devan informed Adams this past December that he was dropping out of the race because the "system" was rigged and he just wasn’t going to be able to effectively fight it.
I believe ultimately this race will settle upon issues and ideology with geography playing less of a factor than the conventional wisdom has assumed. Also, the fact that Lancaster and Hartz both proclaim their own campaign expertise, and say they don’t need help from Sacramento consultants, speaks volumes about this race. Stay tuned as the 59th continues to heat up.