Joseph Graham "Gray" Davis Jr. is an American attorney and former politician who served as the 37th governor of California from 1999 until he was recalled and removed from office in 2003. He is the second state governor in U.S. history to have been recalled, after Lynn Frazier.
The 2003 California gubernatorial recall election was a special election permitted under California state law. It resulted in voters replacing incumbent Democratic Governor Gray Davis with Republican Arnold Schwarzenegger. The recall effort spanned the latter half of 2003. Seven of the nine previous governors, including Davis, had faced unsuccessful recall attempts.
The lieutenant governor of California is the second highest executive officer of the government of the U.S. state of California. The lieutenant governor is elected to serve a four-year term and can serve a maximum of two terms. In addition to largely ministerial roles, serving as acting governor in the absence of the governor of California and as President of the California State Senate, the lieutenant governor either sits on many of California's regulatory commissions and executive agencies.
Stephen Leo Poizner is an American businessman, technology entrepreneur and former Republican California Insurance Commissioner and Gubernatorial candidate. Poizner also was an independent candidate in the 2018 California Insurance Commissioner election.
United States gubernatorial elections were held on November 7, 2006, in 36 states and two territories. The elections coincided with the midterm elections of the United States Senate and the United States House of Representatives.
John Raymond Garamendi is an American businessman, politician, and member of the Democratic Party who has represented areas of Northern California between San Francisco and Sacramento, including the cities of Fairfield and Vacaville, in the United States House of Representatives since 2009. Garamendi was the California insurance commissioner from 1991 to 1995 and 2003 to 2007, the U.S. Deputy Secretary of the Interior from 1995 to 1998, and the 46th lieutenant governor of California from 2007 until his election to Congress in late 2009.
Bruce A. McPherson is an American politician who served as the 30th California secretary of state from March 30, 2005, to January 7, 2007. He is currently a member of the Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors.
The 2006 California gubernatorial election occurred on November 7, 2006. The primary elections took place on June 6, 2006. The incumbent Republican Governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, won re-election for his first and only full term. His main opponent was California State Treasurer Phil Angelides, the California Democratic Party nominee. Peter Camejo was the California Green Party nominee, Janice Jordan was the Peace and Freedom Party nominee, Art Olivier was the California Libertarian Party nominee, and Edward C. Noonan was the California American Independent Party nominee.
Cindy Ossias is an American lawyer. In the early months of the year 2000, while serving as a long-time senior lawyer for the California Department of Insurance (CDI), Ossias leaked confidential documents exposing the allegedly illegal and corrupt activities of Chuck Quackenbush, then Insurance Commissioner of California and head of CDI, to the state legislative consultant investigating the Commissioner's actions. In 2004, Ossias also took a seat as Director for California government watchdog group Californians Aware.
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. As of 2023, he is the last Republican to serve as lieutenant governor of California.
William Westwood Lockyer is a retired American politician from California, who held elective office from 1973 to 2015, as State Treasurer of California, California Attorney General, and President Pro Tempore of the California State Senate.
The California Republican Party (CAGOP) is the affiliate of the United States Republican Party in the U.S. state of California. The party is based in Sacramento and is led by chair Jessica Millan Patterson.
John Laird, an American politician, is the California State Senator for District 17, since 7 December 2020, and was Secretary of the California Natural Resources Agency from 2011 to 2019 and a former legislator who represented the 27th district in the California State Assembly until 2008. The 27th district included parts of Santa Clara County, Santa Cruz County and Monterey County. Laird was one of the first two openly gay men to serve in the California legislature. Laird became one of the United States' first openly gay mayors in 1983 when he took over the mayoralty of the city of Santa Cruz, California.
Ricardo Lara is an American politician who is currently serving as the 8th Insurance Commissioner of California. Lara was elected during the 2018 election, defeating former California insurance commissioner Steve Poizner.
The 2006 California Insurance Commissioner election occurred on November 7, 2006. The primary elections took place on June 6, 2006. Businessman Steve Poizner, the Republican nominee, defeated Lieutenant Governor Cruz Bustamante, the Democratic nominee, for the office previously held by Democrat John Garamendi, who was term-limited and ran for lieutenant governor. Poizner is the only Republican other than Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to win a statewide election in California since 1998. As of 2023, this is the last time a Republican was elected Insurance Commissioner.
The 2003 United States elections, most of which were held on Tuesday, November 4, were off-year elections in which no members of the Congress were standing for election. However, there were three gubernatorial races, state legislative elections in four states, numerous citizen initiatives, mayoral races in several major cities, and a variety of local offices on the ballot.
The 2014 California gubernatorial election was held on November 4, 2014, to elect the Governor of California, concurrently with elections for the rest of California's executive branch, as well as elections to the United States Senate in other states and elections to the United States House of Representatives and various state and local elections.
Garry South is a Democratic political strategist based in California and principal of Garry South Consulting. He is best known for managing Democrat Gray Davis’ successful gubernatorial campaigns in both 1998 and 2002. In 1998, the California Democratic Party had not been successful in electing a governor for 20 years and only three Democrats had won previously in the entire 20th century. In 2011, the journal Capitol Weekly designated South among the top 50 most influential political players in California.
The 2018 California Insurance Commissioner election was held on November 6, 2018, to elect the Insurance Commissioner of California. Under California's nonpartisan blanket primary law, all candidates appear on the same ballot, regardless of party. In the primary, voters may vote for any candidate, regardless of their party affiliation. The top two finishers — regardless of party — advance to the general election in November, even if a candidate manages to receive a majority of the votes cast in the primary election.
The 2021 California gubernatorial recall election was a special recall election that began in August 2021 and concluded on September 14, 2021, when California voters chose not to recall incumbent Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom, elected for the term January 2019 to January 2023.
