California Attorney General election, 2010

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California Attorney General election, 2010
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  Kamala Harris Official Attorney General Photo (cropped).jpg Steve Cooley cropped flipped.jpg
Nominee Kamala Harris Steve Cooley
Party Democratic Republican
Popular vote4,443,0704,368,617
Percentage46.1%45.3%
CA2010AttyGen.svg
Election results by county
Attorney General before election

Jerry Brown
Democratic

Elected Attorney General

Kamala Harris
Democratic

Harris speaking at a Democratic rally at USC in October 2010 Kamala Harris (5122897990) (cropped2).jpg
Harris speaking at a Democratic rally at USC in October 2010

The 2010 California Attorney General election was held on November 2, 2010 to choose the Attorney General of California. The primary election was held on June 8, 2010. Incumbent Attorney General Jerry Brown, a Democrat was elected Governor of California.

California State of the United States of America

California is a state in the Pacific Region of the United States. With 39.6 million residents, California is the most populous U.S. state and the third-largest by area. The state capital is Sacramento. The Greater Los Angeles Area and the San Francisco Bay Area are the nation's second and fifth most populous urban regions, with 18.7 million and 8.8 million residents respectively. Los Angeles is California's most populous city, and the country's second most populous, after New York City. California also has the nation's most populous county, Los Angeles County, and its largest county by area, San Bernardino County. The City and County of San Francisco is both the country's second-most densely populated major city after New York City and the fifth-most densely populated county, behind only four of the five New York City boroughs.

The incumbent is the current holder of an office. This term is usually used in reference to elections, in which races can often be defined as being between an incumbent and non-incumbent(s). For example, in the Hungarian presidential election, 2017, János Áder was the incumbent, because he had been the president in the term before the term for which the election sought to determine the president. A race without an incumbent is referred to as an open seat.

Jerry Brown 34th and 39th Governor of California

Edmund Gerald "Jerry" Brown Jr. is an American politician who served as the 34th and 39th Governor of California from 1975 to 1983 and from 2011 to 2019. A member of the Democratic Party, Brown served as California Attorney General from 2007 to 2011. He was both the oldest and sixth-youngest Governor of California as a consequence of the 28-year gap between his second and third terms.

Contents

The two major candidates were Los Angeles County District Attorney Steve Cooley of the Republican Party and San Francisco County District Attorney Kamala Harris representing the Democratic Party. On November 24, 2010, Cooley conceded to Harris, giving the Democrats a sweep of statewide executive offices. [1] On November 30, Harris declared victory. [2] Harris was the state's first female African-American and the nation's first Asian-American state attorney general when her term began in January 2011.

Los Angeles County District Attorney

The District Attorney of Los Angeles County is the district attorney (DA) for Los Angeles County, California, United States. The DA's office prosecutes felony and misdemeanor crimes that occur within the county. The current district attorney is Jackie Lacey.

Steve Cooley Los Angeles District Attorney

Stephen Lawrence "Steve" Cooley is an American politician and prosecutor. He was the Los Angeles County District Attorney from 2000 to 2012. Cooley was re-elected in 2004 and again in 2008.

The California Republican Party (CAGOP) is the California affiliate of the United States Republican Party. The party is based in Sacramento, and is led by Chairwoman Jessica Patterson.

The campaign

For much of the election cycle following the primary election, political analysts theorized early on that the strength of Cooley's name after being twice elected District Attorney in Democratic-leaning Los Angeles County, being viewed as a rising star in the California Republican Party along with the strength of Meg Whitman's well-funded campaign anchoring the California Republican ticket in 2010 made Steve Cooley the initial favorite by a slight margin to win the election.

Meg Whitman American business executive

Margaret Cushing Whitman is an American business executive, political activist, and philanthropist. Whitman served as President and Chief Executive Officer of Hewlett Packard Enterprise. Whitman was a senior member of Mitt Romney's presidential campaigns in both 2008 and 2012 and ran for governor of California as a Republican but supported Hillary Clinton in 2016.

Kamala Harris coalesced Democratic support with her opposition to Proposition 8, which Cooley promised to defend in court, opposing the unpopular Proposition 23 and any proposal for an SB 1070-style law in California. Harris benefitted from an endorsement and joint appearance with President Barack Obama at a rally at the University of Southern California before election day as well as a focus of the Los Angeles County Democratic Party on promoting her candidacy in Los Angeles County towards the final weeks of the campaign, which promised to make the race competitive.

Kamala Harris United States Senator from California

Kamala Devi Harris is an American attorney and politician who has served as the junior United States Senator from California since 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, she previously served as the 32nd Attorney General of California from 2011 to 2017, and as the 27th District Attorney of San Francisco from 2004 to 2011. On January 21, 2019, she officially announced her campaign to run for the Democratic nomination for President of the United States in the 2020 United States presidential election.

On election night, the headliners on the Republican ticket, Meg Whitman and Carly Fiorina were soundly defeated by Jerry Brown and Barbara Boxer, with Democrats having a healthy margin to declare victory in every other statewide contest, save for attorney general. Abel Maldonado, who was defeated for his reelection bid as Lieutenant Governor, stated that errors of the Whitman and Fiorina campaigns dragged Republican candidates on the bottom of the ticket down along with the fading fortunes of Whitman and Fiorina towards the end of the race.

Carly Fiorina American businesswoman and political figure

Cara Carleton "Carly" Fiorina is an American businesswoman and political figure, known primarily for her tenure as CEO of Hewlett-Packard (HP). She subsequently served as Chair of the philanthropic organization Good360.

Barbara Boxer American politician

Barbara Levy Boxer is a retired American politician who served as a United States Senator for California from 1993 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, she previously served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1983 to 1993.

Abel Maldonado 48th Lieutenant Governor of California

Abel O. Maldonado Jr. is an American politician who served as the 48th Lieutenant Governor of California from April 27, 2010 to January 10, 2011. He is a member of the Republican Party.

The only bright spot statewide for the California Republican Party that night were early returns showing Cooley with a lead of up to eight points, in which he and many news organizations declared victory. However, the next morning, returns from Los Angeles County, which was believed to be a Cooley stronghold came in strong for Kamala Harris, removing one of Cooley's key advantages and making the race too close to call. Cooley then canceled a victory press conference scheduled for that day.

Los Angeles and San Francisco County reported their returns, which favored Harris with less than 38,000 votes (45.9% versus 45.7%) [3] separating both candidates at the end of counting that day.

On November 24, 2010, Cooley conceded the race when it was determined that he was going to be unable to overcome the 50,000-vote lead that Harris had built up and maintained during the past week, with a majority of the uncounted ballots coming from counties which Harris won. [4] The closest statewide race of the 2010 cycle in California, Cooley is the top vote-getter of the 2010 Republican ticket, [5] while Harris's victory gave the Democratic Party a clean sweep of all of California's statewide offices - a feat the party had last accomplished in 2002.

Candidates

The following were certified by the California Secretary of State as candidates in the primary election for Attorney General. [6] Candidates who won their respective primaries and qualified for the general election are shown in bold.

American Independent

Democratic

Green

Libertarian

Peace and Freedom

Republican

Primary results

Democratic

California Democratic Attorney General primary, 2010
CandidateVotes%
Kamala Harris 762,99533.6
Alberto Torrico 354,79215.6
Chris Kelly 350,75715.5
Ted Lieu 237,61810.5
Pedro Nava 222,9419.7
Rocky Delgadillo 219,4949.6
Mike Schmier127,2915.5
Total votes2,275,888100.00
Voter turnout30.1%

Republican

California Republican Attorney General primary, 2010
CandidateVotes%
Steve Cooley 1,012,29447.3
John C. Eastman 737,02534.5
Tom Harman 391,61818.2
Total votes2,140,937100.00
Voter turnout40.1%

Others

California Attorney General primary, 2010 (others)
PartyCandidateVotes%
American Independent Diane Templin39,103100.00
Green Peter Allen20,845100.00
Libertarian Timothy Hannan17,957100.00
Peace and Freedom Robert Evans3,892100.00

General election polling

Poll sourceDates administeredSteve Cooley (R)Kamala Harris (D)Undecided/Other
Suffolk University October 21–24, 201034%35%31%
Los Angeles Times/USC October 13–20, 201040%35%-
David Binder Research September 23–27, 201027%30%43%
The Field Poll September 14–21, 201035%31%34%
The Field Poll June 22–June 25, 201037%34%23%

General election results

California Attorney General election, 2010 [7]
PartyCandidateVotes%
Democratic Kamala Harris 4,443,07046.1
Republican Steve Cooley 4,368,61745.3
Green Peter Allen258,8802.7
Libertarian Timothy J. Hannan246,5842.6
American Independent Diane Beall Templin169,9941.7
Peace and Freedom Robert J. Evans160,4261.6
Total votes9,647,571100.00
Democratic hold

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References

  1. ↑ "Kamala Harris wins attorney general's race as Steve Cooley concedes". Los Angeles Times. November 24, 2010.
  2. ↑ Lagos, Marisa (December 1, 2010). "Kamala Harris sets course as new attorney general". SF Chronicle. Retrieved 2010-12-01.
  3. ↑ "California — Election Results 2010". NY Times.
  4. ↑ "L.A. Now". Los Angeles Times.
  5. ↑ GOP's Cooley Beats... GOP's Whitman | Capital Notes - From KQED's John Myers
  6. ↑ "2010 Gubernatorial Primary - June 8, 2010: Official Certified List of Candidates" (PDF). California Secretary of State. April 9, 2010. Retrieved June 1, 2010.
  7. ↑ Statement of Vote November 2, 2010, General Election
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