Tom Umberg

Atty. Gen. Dan Lungren took the unusual step Monday of denouncing his Democratic opponent for a campaign commercial that has yet to run, saying the advertisement wrongly depicts him as bearing some responsibility for the death of murder-kidnaping victim Polly Klaas. Flanked at a news conference by more than a dozen crime victims, Lungren demanded that Democrat Tom Umberg "pull the plug" on the commercial before it airs. "I want the people of California to know just how desperate Tom Umberg is and just how lacking in character and principle he is to ever concoct and air such an ad," Lungren said, adding that the commercial "tramples" on crime victims in California and will establish Umberg as "the sleaziest" politician in the state's history.

In a spirited 30-minute debate for public television, Assemblyman Tom Umberg on Wednesday criticized state Atty. Gen. Dan Lungren for not taking a position on the immigration initiative on the Nov. 8 ballot, while the incumbent accused his Democratic rival of belatedly supporting the politically popular "three strikes" sentencing laws. Umberg, a two-term assemblyman from Garden Grove, also accused Lungren of allowing the attorney general's office to be influenced by campaign contributions.

Vacancies in half a dozen statewide offices in this week's California primary resulted in opening up the political vineyards to a new crop of candidates--among them a Latino political pro, a gay bureaucrat, a businesswoman and political novice--all promising spirited races in November. The winners in these so-called "down-ballot" races below the rank of governor had faced a number of obstacles in Tuesday's primary.

Democratic Assemblyman Tom Umberg announced his candidacy Thursday for state attorney general and immediately went on the attack, saying that Republican incumbent Dan Lungren has lost the war on crime. Umberg, a former federal prosecutor and the only Orange County Democrat in the Legislature, vowed to focus on juvenile crime to help keep first-time offenders from becoming revolving-door felons.

State Assemblyman Tom Umberg, Orange County's only Democrat in the Legislature, said Wednesday that he is planning a campaign next year to unseat state Atty. Gen. Dan Lungren. Umberg, a former federal prosecutor, stopped short of officially launching his campaign, saying instead that he will form an exploratory committee and then make a final decision about the contest, probably in January. He declined to rule out the possibility that he might seek reelection to his Garden Grove Assembly seat.

It's straight out of Boy's Life magazine, the sort of tale that prompts political cynics around here to arch an eyebrow. But Tom Umberg recites it unabashedly. Some kids want to be cowboys or astronauts; Umberg always yearned to become a big-time prosecutor--to put bad guys behind bars, to mete out truth and justice.

It's straight out of Boy's Life magazine, the sort of tale that prompts political cynics around here to arch an eyebrow. But Tom Umberg recites it unabashedly. Some kids want to be cowboys or astronauts; Umberg always yearned to become a big-time prosecutor--to put bad guys behind bars, to mete out truth and justice.

Brian O'Leary Bennett, a longtime aide to Garden Grove Congressman Robert K. Dornan, unfurled a list of big-name Republican supporters Monday as he became the first candidate to enter an upcoming special election for an open state Senate seat in central Orange County. Gov. Pete Wilson is expected to call the special election for next spring in order to fill the seat now held by state Sen. Edward R. Royce (R-Anaheim), who was elected last month to the U.S. House of Representatives.

Orange County's 69th Assembly District has always produced some of the region's most bruising political campaigns, and this season's high-priced slugfest has held true to form. Democratic Assemblyman Tom Umberg, 37, and Republican challenger Jo Ellen Allen, 46, have spent nearly $1 million combined, and they have used most of the campaign cash to batter each other with political mail as indelicate as an uppercut.

Assemblyman Tom Umberg (D-Garden Grove) dispatched a letter Wednesday to Gov. Pete Wilson asking him to rescind his endorsement of Republican challenger Jo Ellen Allen, citing lawsuits and tax liens against her husband's business and the couple's failure to promptly pay $14,600 in back rent on the family's former residence.