Joel Fox, an analyst of California politics, writes here that Steve Poizner may very well be elected Insurance Commissioner of California this year. Poizner is an independent. If he wins, it would be the first time someone who wasn’t a Democrat or a Republican has been elected to partisan statewide office in California since 1914.
As the column notes, the key advantage for Poizner is that no Republican filed to run. His opponents are two Democrats and one Peace & Freedom member.
Hiram Johnson was elected as a Republican in 1910, he ran for Vice President as a Republican in California in 1912, and he ran for US Senate as a Republican five times.
What caused the IC office to be on the CA ballots ???