Metropolitan News-Enterprise

 

Friday, October 2, 2015

 

Page 3

 

Dave Jones Says He Will Run for Attorney General

 

By a MetNews Staff Writer

 

California Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones said yesterday he intends to run for state attorney general in 2018.

“I have dedicated my life and my legal training to protecting California families,” he said in a statement. “I am ready and well prepared to take on this challenge.”

Jones, who is term-limited in his current position, will be able to transfer $2.6 million from his current campaign account. The current attorney general, Democrat Kamala Harris, is also term-limited, but is favored to win next year’s election to the U.S. Senate, which would allow Gov. Jerry Brown to fill the post for the last two years of her term.

Among those being mentioned for the post, according to the Sacramento Bee, are Los Angeles County District Attorney Jackie Lacey and San Francisco District Attorney George Gascón. Democrats with campaign accounts to run for attorney general in 2018 include former senators Ellen Corbett, from Alameda County, and Lou Correa of Orange County, and ex-Assemblyman Dario Frommer, who is from Glendale and is now a partner at Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP in Los Angeles.

On the Republican side, San Bernardino County District Attorney Mike Ramos has said he is running and Assemblyman Don Wagner, from Orange County, has an open campaign account.

Jones is the second statewide officeholder to announce his plans. Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom said earlier this year that he plans to run for governor in 2018.

Jones, 53, previously served in the state Assembly and on the Sacramento City Council. Before that, he was special assistant and counsel to U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno, and worked as a legal aid lawyer.

Although easily reelected last year, he suffered a major setback when his heavily outspent campaign for Proposition 45, an initiative that would have expanded the commissioner’s powers over health insurance plans, lost by about 20 points.

 

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