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Abel Maldonado is a liberal Republican (but only in California)

- February 11, 2010

Boris writes:

State Senator Abel Maldonado was nominated by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to the lieutenant governorship to replace John Garamendi, who was recently elected to the US House of Representatives.

Despite support from the Republican Governor and Democratic Senate Leader Darrell Steinberg, Maldonado faces a very difficult confirmation. Democrats accuse him of being too conservative. At the same time, the influential California Republican Assembly recently called for his defeat.

Can they both be right? Can Maldonado be simultaneously liberal and conservative? Yes. But only in California!

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Boris continues:

[Maldonado] in the most liberal 3rd percentiles in the party. That is, 97% of all Republicans who have ever served in either the Assembly or the Senate are more conservative than him.

But his voting record is only that liberal in a state like California’s. He’s by far more conservative than even the most right-wing Democrat in the state. . . . For a comparison, Maldonado is far more conservative than Scott Brown, who scores at –0.17.