San Francisco's Peter Schurman, who once served as the executive director of Democrat advocacy group MoveOn.org, has decided to throw his hat into the governor's race running against Attorney General Jerry Brown for the Democratic nomination.
In a prepared statement, Schurman was quick to position himself to the left of Brown:
Six-plus years of Republican mismanagement have left California in a fiscal and civic crisis. We've got to win the Governor's office, and the way to win is to fight for our core values, not run away from them.
It doesn't seem likely that the 40-year old Schurman has much of a chance, as an earlier challenge to Brown by a young, Web-savvy candidate went nowhere fast.
That would be the campaign from Schurman's fellow San Franciscan, Mayor Gavin Newsom.
He does have a populist plan to raise revenue in order to balance the budget deficit through everything from increasing commercial property taxes to taxing the marijuana trade.
And he's just what Brown doesn't need -- as Republican candidate Meg Whitman can probably relate, it's no fun getting attacked by a primary opponent staking out an extreme ideological position to cater to hard-core party faithful that vote in primaries.
Jackson West wouldn't mind seeing a debate come out of this at least.
