Boxer’s 2016 Retirement Intent Prompts Ramos To Seek AG Appointment

(January 14)  Senator Barbara Boxer’s announcement last week that she will not seek reelection next year triggered two further announcements, the last of which is that San Bernardino County District Attorney Mike Ramos intends to make his pitch to Governor Jerry Brown for his appointment as California Attorney General if that position becomes vacant in 2016.
California Attorney General Kamala Harris, who was just reelected to a second four-year term as the state’s top prosecutor in November, reacted to Boxer’s announcement by jumping foursquare into the race to succeed her.
One question at this time is whether Harris would run for Senate as an incumbent attorney general or whether she would resign at some point in 2016 to fully concentrate on her senatorial campaign.
Ramos, a Republican who ran for reelection last year with the endorsement of Harris, a Democrat, also endorsed her in her reelection bid for Attorney General, giving voters the impression that they are part of one large law enforcement fraternity, wherein party affiliation is a secondary consideration to cooperation. Looking at the possibility that Harris might step down as attorney general to run for Senator or might prove victorious in the race, Ramos is looking to open a dialogue with Governor Jerry Brown, who is also a Democrat but who was California Attorney General until 2010 and collaborated with Ramos on some criminal cases, in which Ramos might request that Brown consider appointing him to fill a vacancy that would be created by Harris’s leaving.
In November, when Ramos announced he would seek election as California Attorney General, he indicated he would remain as district attorney for the full current term, which runs through 2018. Ramos was first elected in 2002, faced no opposition in 2006, bested two challengers in 2010 and was reelected last June in a race that featured only one opponent. His declared intention of serving out the entirety of his current term in San Bernardino County is now being tested by Harris’s reaction to Boxer’s pending departure two years hence.
One group, California Crime Victims United, sent a letter to Brown January 4, asking him to consider Ramos as Harris’s successor, should she depart as state attorney general.

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