As they say in politics, it is the goal of every erstwhile officeholder to run for that office without an opponent. While some folks get away with that — like when then-State Senator Ed Royce cleared the primary in his race for Congress back in 1992, or when, years later, John Campbell had an unopposed run for the State Assembly — it isn’t usually the case.
It looks like popular conservative Assemblywoman Mimi Walters will not be "walking" into the 33rd State Senate District as she had hoped, though I would certainly catagorize her as a very strong front-runner. Today, Anaheim City Councilman Harry Sidhu threw his hat into the ring for the GOP primary for this "safe" Republican district currently occupied by the term-limited Senator Dick Ackerman. Above to the right is a photo from Sidhu’s website with Senator and Mrs. Tom Harman. I don’t know that the Senator has endorsed Sidhu, but President Bush (with whom Sidhu appears in a photo on the website) probably hasn’t endorsed…
I know of a number of consultants who were meeting with Sidhu, but he has retained Coronado Communications (h/t to Duane DIchiara and Jennifer Jacobs) as his general campaign consultants, who will go up against Dave Gilliard and the team as Gilliard, Blanning, Wysocki and Associates who represent Walters.
Sidhu has personal resources on his side, as does Walters, but there is no doubt that Walters extremely impressive record in the State Assembly, and the statewide network she brought together in her efforts on Proposition 90 really will serve her well. Like I said, in our opinion, this is still Walters’ race to win or lose. If she runs a hard, strong campaign — she should be the next Senator.
We’ll keep an eye on this race as it develops…