Now, Lieu said, he has even more reasons for confidence in his own candidacy.
Harris, the San Francisco District Attorney who entered the race with the best-known name among the seven Democratic hopefuls, has been battling negative headlines.
The San Francisco Chronicle has reported that numerous criminal convictions are at risk because Harris’ prosecutors lacked a legally mandated system for informing defense lawyers about potential credibility problems of police witnesses, and that a coroner’s supervising toxicologist vouched for blood-test results in DUI cases for two years before defense attorneys were told that a court had labeled her a “perpetrator of fraud.”
In addition, a judge concluded that Harris’ office violated defendants’ rights by hiding information about a now-retired crime lab technician who has become embroiled in a cocaine-skimming scandal that led prosecutors to dismiss more than 600 drug cases.
Ballot boosts?
Lieu, 41, ticked off a list of other reasons he believes he will stand apart from the rest of the field as voters mull their selection for the state’s top law enforcement official.
For one thing, his ballot designation, “military prosecutor/lawmaker,” could serve him well in a race in which, according to surveys, more than half of voters have not heard of the candidates.
“My ballot designation is really good. It shows that I am a veteran and I have prosecutorial experience,” he said. “…I’ve put people behind bars.”
The edge could be an important one, Lieu said.
“With seven candidates running on the Democratic side, I could win with 20 percent of the vote,” he said.
Lieu served four years active duty in the U.S. Air Force and has served an additional 11 years in the Air Force Reserve, in which he was recently promoted to lieutenant colonel. Throughout his service he has been a prosecutor in the JAG corps.
Lieu also claimed a geographic edge, saying that Southern California Democrats have an advantage in statewide primary elections.
Five candidates on the ballot live north of the sprawling Southern California area that contains two thirds of the state’s voters, said Lieu, whose home is in Torrance.
“The largest number of Democratic voters is in Los Angeles County, the second largest number is in Orange County, and the third largest number is in San Diego County,” he said.
Lieu said his campaign funding picture looks good as well. Harris has raised more money than has Lieu, but he said she burns through it faster. At the last reporting juncture, March 17, Harris had $1.3 million on hand while Lieu had $1.1 million, he said.
“She has outraised me, but she has an enormously high ‘burn rate,’” he said. Lieu avoids flying first class and staying in high-end hotels – “things I’d like to do, but my staff won’t let me,” he said.
However, another Democratic rival, former Facebook executive Chris Kelly, is the moneybags of the race, with much more cash on hand than any other candidate.
Lieu shrugged off results of a poll by SurveyUSA, released May 26, showing Harris in the lead with 25 percent of the vote, followed by Kelly with 17 percent, former Los Angeles City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo with 13 percent, Assemblyman Pedro Nava with 8 percent, Lieu with 7 percent, Assemblyman Albert Torrico with 5 percent and attorney Michael Schmier with 3 percent.
Lieu doubted the accuracy of the telephone poll which, he said, was tenuous in its identification of likely voters.
Harris has beaten out her rivals to land endorsements from major newspapers, including The Chronicle, the Sacramento Bee and the Los Angeles Times.
However the Bee, in its May 2 editorial endorsing Harris, offered words of praise for Lieu.
“Assemblyman Ted Lieu of Torrance has a compelling personal story, a solid legislative record, and has prosecutorial experience, working as a military prosecutor,” the newspaper wrote. “He has proved that he can buck his caucus, and carried ambitious legislation aimed at banks. If he falls short in this race, Lieu should not give up on politics.”
Sacramento trail
Lieu was born to immigrants, and as a child his family lived in the basement of a house and sold gift items at flea markets, before saving enough money to open a gift store, and later opening five more stores.
In the military Lieu earned the Air Force Humanitarian Service Medal and two Meritorious Service Medals. He practiced civil law with Munger, Tolles & Olson, worked at UBS PaineWebber, and served on the Torrance City Council before he was elected to the California Legislature in 2005, serving his full legal limit of terms.
In a primary race populated with Democrats with similar views, Lieu stresses accomplishments such as passing a subprime mortgage reform bill and a bill imposing a 90-day foreclosure moratorium unless a lender offers a comprehensive loan modification program to the homeowner.
Lieu has introduced a bill aimed at extending the time untested evidence in sex crime cases can be kept in frozen storage. State law gives law enforcement only two years to analyze biological evidence collected in sex crimes cases, and there are more than 12,000 DNA samples waiting for testing in Los Angeles County alone.
Lieu’s wife Betty is a former state deputy attorney general, and they have two sons.
GOP local
The leader on the Republican side of the primary election for attorney general lives in the South Bay area as well; Los Angeles District Attorney Steve Cooley recently announced that he now resides on the Palos Verdes Peninsula.
Cooley, who was unavailable for an interview before press time, held a narrow lead in a poll by SurveyUSA, which showed him with 29 percent of the vote in the Republican primary, ahead of state Sen. Tom Harman, R-Costa Mesa, with 28 percent and conservative scholar John Eastman with 14 percent.
Survey-USA places the margin of error at 4 percent, making Cooley’s paper-thin lead potentially nonexistent. ER
