2010 California Attorney General election
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Election results by county
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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.
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.
Contents
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-Stronghold 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.
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.
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. [1]
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 was 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.
Democratic primary
Candidates
- Rocky Delgadillo, attorney and former Los Angeles City Attorney who ran in the Democratic primary in 2006
- Kamala Harris, District Attorney of San Francisco
- Chris Kelly, attorney and former chief privacy officer of Facebook
- Ted Lieu, former military prosecutor and assemblymember from the 53rd district
- Pedro Nava, attorney and assemblymember from the 35th district
- Mike Schmier, employee rights attorney
- Alberto Torrico, assemblymember from the 20th district, former Majority Leader of the State Assembly, and workers' rights attorney
Results
| Democratic primary results | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
| Democratic | Kamala D. Harris | 762,995 | 33.6 | |
| Democratic | Alberto Torrico | 354,792 | 15.6 | |
| Democratic | Chris Kelly | 350,757 | 15.5 | |
| Democratic | Ted W. Lieu | 237,618 | 10.5 | |
| Democratic | Pedro Nava | 222,941 | 9.7 | |
| Democratic | Rocky Delgadillo | 219,494 | 9.6 | |
| Democratic | Mike Schmier | 127,291 | 5.5 | |
| Total votes | 2,275,888 | 100.0 | ||
Republican primary
Candidates
- Steve Cooley, Los Angeles County District Attorney
- John C. Eastman, constitutional law attorney and former dean of Chapman University School of Law
- Tom Harman, attorney and state senator representing the 35th district
Results
| Republican primary results[6] | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
| Republican | Steve Cooley | 1,012,294 | 47.3 | |
| Republican | John Eastman | 737,025 | 34.5 | |
| Republican | Tom Harman | 391,618 | 18.2 | |
| Total votes | 2,140,937 | 100.0 | ||
Minor parties
American Independent Party
Results
| American Independent primary results | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
| American Independent | Diane Beall Templin | 39,103 | 100.0 | |
| Total votes | 39,103 | 100.0 | ||
Green Party
- Peter Allen, attorney, former prosecutor, administrative law judge, and consumer advocate
Results
| Green primary results | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
| Green | Peter Allen | 20,845 | 100.0 | |
| Total votes | 20,845 | 100.0 | ||
Libertarian Party
- Timothy Hannan, attorney, mediator and arbitrator
Results
| Libertarian primary results | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
| Libertarian | Timothy J. Hannan | 17,957 | 100.0 | |
| Total votes | 17,957 | 100.0 | ||
Peace and Freedom Party
- Robert Evans, attorney, activist, former Recording Secretary of the Peace and Freedom Party
Results
| Peace and Freedom primary results | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
| Peace and Freedom | Robert Evans | 3,892 | 100.0 | |
| Total votes | 3,892 | 100.0 | ||
General election
Polling
| Poll source | Date(s) administered |
Sample size |
Margin of error |
Kamala Harris (D) |
Steve Cooley (R) |
Other | Undecided |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Suffolk University | October 21–24, 2010 | 600 | ± 4.0% | 35% | 34% | 5% [7] | 26% |
| Los Angeles Times/USC | October 13–20, 2010 | 922 | ± 3.2% | 35% | 40% | – | – |
| David Binder Research | September 23–27, 2010 | 800 | ± 3.5% | 30% | 27% | 11% | 32% |
| Field Poll | September 14–21, 2010 | 599 | ± 4.1% | 31% | 35% | – | 34% |
| Field Poll | June 22 – July 5, 2010 | 357 | ± 5.5% | 34% | 37% | – | 29% |
Results
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Democratic | Kamala Harris | 4,442,781 | 46.05% | -10.24% | |
| Republican | Steve Cooley | 4,368,624 | 45.28% | +7.17% | |
| Green | Peter Allen | 258,879 | 2.68% | +0.37% | |
| Libertarian | Timothy J. Hannan | 246,583 | 2.56% | +0.46% | |
| American Independent | Diane Beall Templin | 169,993 | 1.76% | N/A | |
| Peace and Freedom | Robert J. Evans | 160,416 | 1.66% | +0.47% | |
| Total votes | 9,647,276 | 100.00% | N/A | ||
| Democratic hold | |||||
References
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- ↑ https://sosmt.gov/wp-content/uploads/attachments/2012_PRIMARY_STATEWIDE_CANVASS.PDF
- ↑ Peter Allen (G) with 2%, Diane Templin (AI), Timothy Hannan (L), and Robert Evans (PF) each with 1%
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
