To help stimulate his campaign to be California’s next attorney general, Assemblymember Pedro Nava (D-Santa Barbara) wants to chat over coffee.
As part of “Cup of Java with Nava,” contributors to Nava’s campaign are being entered into a random drawing to win a chance to “sit down and talk about issues” with the candidate. The event runs until midnight Jan. 8, with the winner to be announced on Nava’s campaign website.
Nava, a former Deputy District Attorney for Fresno County, threw his hat in the ring for the state’s top law enforcement position on May 28. He’s since received endorsements from Ventura County Sheriff Bob Brooks, Oxnard and Ventura police chiefs, and environmentalists such as actor Ed Begley, Jr.
In the June 8 Democratic primary, Nava will likely be facing off against a packed field of contenders: San Francisco District Attorney Kamala Harris; Los Angeles City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo; Assembly Majority Leader Alberto Torrico; former Assemblymember Joe Cancillamilla; 53rd District Assemblymember Ted Lieu; and Chris Kelly, an attorney for Facebook.com. Democrat Jerry Brown is vacating the post to make a run for governor.
Nava has represented the 35th district since December 2004 and was reelected in 2008 with 69 percent of the vote. He’s currently the vice-chair of a joint committee on emergency management and a member of the California Emergency Council, which advises Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on emergency preparedness.
A member of the California Coastal Commission for seven years, Nava has come out in support of taxes on oil drilling and tougher laws on sexually violent predators. He authored a bill banning the use of lead-based ammunition in areas inhabited by the endangered California Condor and most recently gained notoriety for leading a successful opposition to an oil-drilling proposal by Plains Exploration and Production Company in July 2009. A plan by Schwarzenegger would have overridden a State Lands Commission denial of the proposal and allowed PXP to slant drill into state waters from Platform Irene off the Gaviota coast.
Nava has also supported delaying Schwarzenegger’s choice of Sen. Abel Maldonado (R-Santa Maria) as the state’s lieutenant governor.
“This decision should not be rushed, as some have suggested,” he wrote in The Huffington Post. “It should not be political. In fact, it should not be now.”
This article appears in Jan 7-14, 2010.