4 Secretary of State Contenders to Square Off in Sac Press Club Debate

Four of the candidates running for Secretary of State have agreed to participate in a lunchtime debate hosted by the Sacramento Press Club on Wednesday, April 23. The entire debate will be broadcast on Cal Channel at a later time, and portions of it will be aired on Capital Public Radio.

The race for secretary of state lost a candidate but gained attention last month when Sen. Leland Yee withdrew after being charged in a criminal conspiracy. What his indictment signals about money and politics in California could be one question lobbed at the candidates during the debate. Others include what ideas they have to improve transparency and update the antiquated campaign finance and lobbying databases; how they would improve California’s business climate; and whether the secretary of state should be a nonpartisan office.

Participating in the debate will be (in alphabetical order):

• Derek Cressman, a Democrat and former leader at Common Cause who filed the complaint with the Fair Political Practices Commission that led to an investigation of $11 million that was funneled anonymously into two 2012 ballot measure campaigns.

• Alex Padilla, a Democratic senator from the San Fernando Valley who was named by Around the Capitol as one of 2013’s most effective legislators for his ability to “cross ideological lines, take on big bills, and keep warring parties within the caucus.”

• Pete Peterson, a Santa Monica Republican and executive director of Pepperdine’s Davenport Institute, where he focuses on increasing civic participation in government decision-making and the role of technology in the citizen/government relationship.

• Dan Schnur, director of the Jesse M. Unruh Institute of Politics at USC and a former Republican who is running as an independent. Schnur previously chaired the Fair Political Practices Commission and worked for Govs. Pete Wilson and Ronald Reagan.

The candidates will face a panel of reporters – Dan Walters of the Sacramento Bee, George Skelton of the Los Angeles Times and Katie Orr of Capital Public Radio – as well as answer written questions from the audience. A portion of the debate will involve a “cross-fire” of questions from the candidates to each other.

To accommodate the debate format, the normal Sacramento Press Club lunch schedule has been extended. The doors will open at 11:15 a.m., the buffet lunch will be available beginning at 11:30 a.m., and the buffet will close and all audience members must be in their seats by noon when the debate begins. The debate is expected to end at 1:30 p.m.

The lunch will take place at the Capitol Plaza, 1025 Ninth Street, 3rd Floor. Tickets, $29 for members and $40 for non-members, may be purchased at www.sacpressclub.org. The RSVP deadline for the Wednesday lunch is 5 p.m. Monday, April 21.