The Buzz: Republican Beth Gaines may face two GOP challengers

SacBee: The Buzz ^ | 3/8/12

[SmithL]

The race for the newly drawn 6th Assembly District is shaping up as a potential political – and personal – Republican slugfest.

GOP Assemblywoman Beth Gaines could face two challengers from her side of the aisle in her re-election bid for the safe Republican district.

The Rocklin Republican's potential rivals – Folsom attorney Andrew Pugno and Roseville school board member Linda Park – both have ties to Gaines' former rival, Roseville Councilman John Allard.

Pugno, who has filed a statement of intention to run but has made no formal announcement, used the same campaign consultant in 2010 that Allard did in the 2011 contest that Gaines won, succeeding her husband, Ted Gaines, now in the Senate.

Proposition 8 author Pugno bemoaned in a recent fundraising email "the lack of elected officials who are willing to speak out and defend traditional marriage in the public arena."

Park's sons Aaron and George have been critics of the Gaineses. "The bottom line is that there are several people that feel we deserve better,"

[SmithL]

Assemblywoman Beth Gaines, seen being congratulated last May after her swearing-in, may have to take on two GOP candidates in her re-election bid in the redrawn 6th District.

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[First A Patriot]

Beth does a great job and so does her husband Ted Gaines. Ted is in the state senate. Rocklin is my town and very conservative.