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Sacramento Bee Columnist Daniel Weintraub

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October 18, 2003

Lockyer: I voted for Arnold

Democrat Atty. Gen. Bill Lockyer says he voted for Republican Arnold Schwarzenegger for governor. Lockyer, speaking at a recall post-mortem at UC Berkeley, said he opposed the recall but chose Schwarzenegger in the replacement election because he stood for "hope, change, reform, opportunity, upbeat problem solving." He added, "I want that. I'm tired of transactional, cynical, dealmaking politics." Lockyer, considered a frontrunner for the Democratic nomination for governor in 2006, would have had to challenge an incumbent of his own party had Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante been elected this year. Lockyer didn't directly criticize Bustamante Saturday but said he looked at the list of candidates and it was "a crappy list." Lockyer said his vote for Schwarzenegger was his first for a Republican in a partisan race in his life. "I hope I haven't been conned," he said.

UPDATE: In comments to reporters after his speech, Lockyer had this to say about why he didn't vote for his fellow Democrat: "You know the people in your profession really well. You know who works hard and who doesn't. You know who is honest and who isn't. Cops know that about cops. Doctors know that about doctors. I know that about politicians. The common thing to all these professions is none of them say it. That's all I'm going to say."