Thomas Umberg

Democratic Assembly candidate Thomas Umberg won the first skirmish Wednesday in his battle to unseat incumbent Curt Pringle (R-Garden Grove) when a Sacramento County judge ruled that Umberg may use the ballot designation "assistant U.S. attorney," even though he resigned last January. Superior Court Judge Horace E.

A Sacramento judge Tuesday rejected Assemblyman Tom Umberg's bid to remove Orange County Supervisor Lou Correa from the June primary ballot for the 34th state Senate District. Both are vying in the Democratic primary to replace Sen. Joe Dunn (D-Santa Ana), who is running for state controller. Umberg (D-Anaheim), alleged that Correa had collected 41 signatures beyond the legal limit, challenging the Orange County registrar's decision to accept his candidacy papers.

In the first volley of what promises to be a nasty legislative campaign, backers of Assemblyman Curt Pringle (R-Garden Grove) filed suit Wednesday against Democratic opponent Thomas Umberg for using the "misleading" title of "assistant U.S. attorney" on the November ballot. The lawsuit asks a Sacramento Superior Court judge to force Umberg to change the listing to "attorney-at-law," a designation Pringle forces hope will be less impressive to voters in the central Orange County district.

Call it the soft sell from some heavy hitters. Assemblyman Tom Umberg stood in mottled shade Monday during a Labor Day picnic at Santa Ana High School, where the rallying cry was protecting the interests of labor. But a handful of private conversations focused on a different topic. Umberg (D-Anaheim) is one of four Assembly members being lobbied to vote as early as today in favor of the Religious Freedom and Civil Marriage Protection Act, a bill that would allow same-sex couples to marry.

Orange County's most hotly contested Assembly race of 1990 took shape Thursday as a second Democrat launched his campaign and another rumored challenger took his name out of the running. Thomas Umberg, who quit his job as a federal prosecutor in Irvine last month so that he could enter the race to unseat Assemblyman Curt Pringle (R-Garden Grove), officially announced his candidacy at a news conference.

A private lawyer has been hired at public expense to fight an effort to disqualify Orange County Superior Court Judge David O. Carter--and other local judges--from sentencing former Treasurer-Tax Collector Robert L. Citron. The lawyer, former Assemblyman Thomas J. Umberg, insists in court documents that the judge can be "fair and impartial" in sentencing Citron, who has pleaded guilty to interest-skimming charges in connection with the county's financial collapse.

To preempt an embarrassing disclosure, a married state legislator from Anaheim who has announced his candidacy for the state Senate revealed Wednesday that he had carried on a four-year affair with a woman he met through politics. Democratic Assemblyman Tom Umberg and his wife, Robin, who campaigned for him last fall while he served with the U.S. Army Reserve as a terrorism prosecutor, said they were making public the relationship because the woman had threatened to publicize it.

Ever since the Democrats narrowly lost the Assembly race in the 72nd District to Republican Curt Pringle almost two years ago, they have been thirsting for a rematch this year. The Democrats figured that freshman Assemblyman Pringle--wounded by an Election Day scandal in 1988 involving the hiring of security guards at polling places--would still be vulnerable in the only Orange County Assembly District with a Democratic majority.

Clint Reilly, chairman of Democrat Kathleen Brown's campaign for governor, has stepped aside as the top campaign strategist for Assemblyman Tom Umberg, the Orange County Democrat who is seeking to unseat Atty. Gen. Dan Lungren in November. Reilly said that it had become hard for him to do both jobs. Veteran political consultant Richie Ross of Sacramento will become Umberg's chief campaign consultant and election strategist. "We're doing a disservice to Umberg. . . .

Healing the wounds from a bitter June election, Democratic Assembly candidate Tom Umberg announced Monday that he has received the endorsement of his opponent in the primary, Jerry Yudelson. The acrimony between the two Democrats who sought to challenge Assemblyman Curt Pringle (R-Garden Grove) in November became so heated that Yudelson pledged at one point he would never endorse Umberg.

Tom Umberg, an Orange County assemblyman who revealed publicly last month that he had had a four-year extramarital affair, has retired from active service in the Army Reserve, an Army official said Saturday. Umberg, who served last year as a terrorism prosecutor, retired effective June 30, said Jorge Swank, public affairs officer for the Army Reserve's 63rd Regional Readiness Command in Los Alamitos.

Assemblyman Tom Umberg's political allies pledged their continued support Thursday after the Anaheim Democrat, who is seeking a state Senate seat, disclosed his four-year extramarital affair. Colleagues in Orange County and Sacramento, along with some political consultants, said the revelation probably wasn't enough to derail his candidacy next year. State Sen.

To preempt an embarrassing disclosure, a married state legislator from Anaheim who has announced his candidacy for the state Senate revealed Wednesday that he had carried on a four-year affair with a woman he met through politics. Democratic Assemblyman Tom Umberg and his wife, Robin, who campaigned for him last fall while he served with the U.S. Army Reserve as a terrorism prosecutor, said they were making public the relationship because the woman had threatened to publicize it.

Assemblyman Tom Umberg, stationed at the U.S. Naval Station in Guantanamo, Cuba, since August, came home to Santa Ana on Tuesday to give supporters the thanks usually shared on election night. Standing alongside him in a conference room in the Santa Ana Transit Center, known now as the Depot at Santa Ana, were his wife and the cardboard cutout of him that she used to campaign in his absence.

You've heard of the absentee voter? Tom Umberg will have to be the absentee candidate. Umberg is the Democratic nominee for assemblyman from Santa Ana, who held the same seat from 1990 to 1994, interspersed with stints in the Army Reserve. Now the Pentagon has ordered him to report to the office of military commissions, the unit prosecuting suspected terrorists in custody at the U.S. base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. His new job starts Sunday.

Former Orange County Assemblyman Tom Umberg will ask voters next year to again send him to Sacramento. Umberg said Monday that he will run for the 69th Assembly District, the same district he represented from 1990 to 1994. He left the seat in 1994 to seek the Democratic nomination for state insurance commissioner, which voters gave to eventual winner John Garamendi. The 69th District covers central Orange County, including Santa Ana and parts of Garden Grove and Anaheim.

Underscoring his campaign image as an activist and an environmentalist, Democratic Assembly candidate Jerry Yudelson and a group of Hollywood celebrity supporters sought Sunday to turn Orange County's outrage over malathion spraying into an election victory on Tuesday. In Orange County's heaviest malathion spray area, all three candidates seeking the 72nd Assembly District seat--including Yudelson's Democratic opponent, Tom Umberg--have called for a halt to the aerial spraying.

You've heard of the absentee voter? Tom Umberg will have to be the absentee candidate. Umberg is the Democratic nominee for assemblyman from Santa Ana, who held the same seat from 1990 to 1994, interspersed with stints in the Army Reserve. Now the Pentagon has ordered him to report to the office of military commissions, the unit prosecuting suspected terrorists in custody at the U.S. base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. His new job starts Sunday.

Former Assemblyman Tom Umberg will be sworn in as deputy to drug czar Barry R. McCaffrey in a White House ceremony today. Umberg, 42, will be the deputy director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy in charge of supply issues, dealing with law enforcement and foreign policy aspects of the nation's drug policy. He will earn $125,000 a year and will be the only Orange County resident serving in the Clinton administration.

Tom Umberg, who has been working for the nation's drug czar, Gen. Barry R. McCaffrey, in Washington since last summer, was confirmed late Thursday by the U.S. Senate as deputy director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy. Umberg, a former assemblyman from Orange County and candidate for state attorney general, is in charge of drug interdiction efforts worldwide. "I am honored to have the opportunity to help keep America's kids off drugs," Umberg, 42, said.