Good morning from Sacramento. As you may know, I am at the Sacramento Hyatt running for Vice-Chairman South of the California Republican Party (CRP). The voting will take place on Saturday morning and I am confident that with the help of my volunteers and the overwhelming support from GOP leadership, I will have positive results.
Before Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger speaks on Friday night, I am recommending all convention goers travel a few blocks to catch the hearing which will be held at 1:30 p.m., in Department 11 of Sacramento Superior Court, before the Honorable Gail D. Ohanesian. The Gordon D. Schaber Downtown Courthouse is located on 720 Ninth Street in Sacramento.
This hearing involves a lawsuit challenging the qualifications of Attorney General Jerry Brown. The Plaintiff will be represented by former CRP Chairman Michael Schroeder, who will argue that Jerry Brown is the only Attorney General candidate in California history to not have been an attorney on active status for five consecutive years and therefore unqualified for the position as mandated by law. Jerry Brown was on inactive status from 1997 to 2003, a few months before declaring his candidacy. Government Code section 12503 clearly seems to state that: “No person shall be eligible to the office of Attorney General unless he shall have been admitted to practice before the Supreme Court of the state for a period of at least five years immediately preceding his election or appointment to such office.”
In Jerry Brown’s favor, it seems very few judges would have the intestinal fortitude to disqualify a sitting Attorney General who won the election by a large margin and whose election has been already certified by a Republican Secretary of State.
Working against Brown is that Mike Schroeder is one of the most outstanding trial attorneys that I know. He has a sterling reputation as an attorney, and has even argued before the United States Surpeme Court!
Attached is the press release sent by the California Republican Lawyers Association.
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