Skelton: Maldonado off to a bad start
Abel Maldonado at his desk in the Capitol when he was a state senator.
Back in February, George Skelton examined the Republican field of potential candidates for governor and said Abel Maldonado seemed like a pretty good idea.
Maldonado is a moderate in a party that has drifted to the right and a former mayor, lawmaker and lieutenant governor. Plus, he’s Latino, a demographic group Republicans are desperate to win over.
“Certainly he could carry the GOP banner while passing the laugh test,” Skelton thought.
Three months later, Skelton is wondering what happened to Maldonado. In his Monday column, he says the potential candidate has played loose with the facts when criticizing Gov. Jerry Brown’s record on crime and prisons.
“It was not a good first impression among the only people who may have been paying attention: the political community, including potential campaign donors,” Skelton writes. “There was a lot of eye-rolling and wincing.”
All of Skelton’s columns are here.
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