Janice Hahn Officially Launches Campaign for Lt. Governor

After noticeably beefing up the number of press releases sent from her Los Angeles City Council office this past year, Janice Hahn finally announced her official bid for to be California's Lieutenant Governor, an elected government position the public probably knows the least about. Her first press release announces her campaign team (copied below in full), which includes John Shallman, who consulted on the nasty and losing battle for Chris Essel in the recent Council District 2 race, and the young and hard nosed Michael Trujillo (he just had a birthday!), a former anonymous-then-outed blogger at Mayor Sam's Sister City.

JANICE HAHN ANNOUNCES ENTRY INTO LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR RACE AND HER CAMPAIGN TEAM

LOS ANGELES - After receiving enthusiastic response from people up and down the state, Los Angeles City Councilwoman Janice Hahn has decided to make official her run for lieutenant governor of California. Today, she announced the team that will lead her campaign for the Democratic nomination for lieutenant governor in 2010.

GARRY SOUTH, CHIEF STRATEGIST

Garry South managed Gray Davis’s successful campaigns for governor in 1998 and 2002, as well as Davis’s run for lieutenant governor in 1994. In the latter race, Davis bucked a statewide and national Republican tsunami to win the second-highest state post by a 52-40 margin over his Republican opponent, receiving more votes than any other Democrat running for office anywhere in America. South also served as chief of staff to Lt. Gov. Davis. More recently, he was senior advisor to Steve Westly’s 2006 primary campaign for governor, and played a leading role in Al Gore’s 2000 primary and general election victories in California.

JOE TRIPPI, MEDIA/SOCIAL NETWORKING CONSULTANT

Joe Trippi’s work in politics has spanned more than four decades, five presidential campaigns, and numerous winning state and national elections. These include the successful campaigns of U.S. Senator Alan Cranston, Attorney General Jerry Brown and L.A. Mayor Tom Bradley. Trippi served as national campaign manager for Howard Dean's 2004 presidential bid, where he gained national acclaim for his innovative use of online technology and media to organize "Dean for America," build a grassroots movement and raise an unprecedented amount of money online.

JOHN FAIRBANK, LEAD POLLSTER

John Fairbank is a founding partner of California’s leading Democratic polling firm, Fairbank, Maslin, Maullin, Metz & Associates (FM3). For more than a quarter century, FM3 has helped elect candidates up and down the ballot and pass some of the state’s most important ballot measures. FM3 has provided research to 10 statewide elected officials, 25 members of Congress from California and more than 50 members of the California Legislature. In 2006, Fairbank was lead pollster for John Garamendi in both his successful Democratic primary and general-election campaigns for lieutenant governor.

JOHN SHALLMAN, SENIOR CAMPAIGN CONSULTANT

John Shallman managed Janice Hahn’s most recent reelection campaign for L.A. City Council, helping her capture a remarkable 76% of the vote. He has engineered a string of victories over better-known and -funded opponents, including U.S. Rep. Loretta Sanchez over “B1” Bob Dornan for U.S. Congress and L.A. County DA Steve

Cooley over Gil Garcetti. Other Shallman clients have included L. A. Mayor Richard Riordan, Congresswomen Jane Harman and Laura Richardson, Assembly Speaker Robert Hertzberg, L.A. City Attorney Carmen Trutanich, L.A. City Controller Wendy Greuel and numerous members of the California Senate and Assembly. Shallman also has helped pass over $8 billion in local school-bond initiatives.

MICHAEL TRUJILLO, CAMPAIGN MANAGER

Michael Trujillo was California field director for Hillary Clinton’s 2008 presidential primary campaign, and before that worked on Richard Alarcon’s successful state Senate campaign and served as San Fernando Valley field director in Antonio Villaraigosa’s 2001 Los Angeles mayoral campaign. Trujillo also was deputy campaign manager and director of policy for the Proposition 82 universal pre-school initiative in 2006. He also managed the campaign of L.A. Unified School District Board Member Tamar Galatzan.

JORDAN MARKWITH, FINANCE DIRECTOR

Jordan Markwith was deputy national finance director for the successful 2008 campaign of U.S. Sen. Al Franken (D-MN), who raised more than $22 million - more than any other Senate candidate in the cycle. Prior to that, he was a senior associate with Chad Griffin Consulting, Inc., a Beverly Hills-based firm that had among its clients Hillary Clinton’s 2008 presidential campaign, as well as several statewide initiative campaigns. In 2004-05, Markwith was a press aide to L.A. Mayor James Hahn.

The California Federation of Teachers, California Professional Firefighters and National Women’s Political Caucus already have endorsed Hahn’s candidacy for lieutenant governor.