The Skinny

Looking ahead to 2010, it looks like the Florez team is hoping to maintain their grip on Legislative seats in the lower Central Valley. Michael Rubio, a Kern County supervisor who once worked for Sen. Dean Florez, has filed papers to run for his former boss's Senate seat in 2010. Rubio won his seat on the board with Florez's backing, defeating incumbent Pete Parra, father of Assemblywoman Nicole Parra. Florez's mother, Fran, is running for Parra's Assembly seat, apparently without Parra's backing. Parra has flirted publicly with Danny Gilmore, the Republican whom Parra bested in the last election, who will carry the GOP banner against Fran Florez this fall … GOP consultant and strategist Dan Schnur has taken a new gig as the director of the Jesse M. Unruh Institute of Politics at USC. According to a release from the school, "As director, Schnur will oversee conferences, lectures, panel discussions and other campus events designed to raise awareness of campaign politics, government and public policy." And, we're guessing get quoted a heck of a lot as a pundit. West Sacramento Mayor Christopher Cabaldon, eager to put the last Assembly campaign behind him, is launching his bid for reelection. Cabaldon was defeated in the 8th District's Democratic primary by Mariko Yamada. And in another entry from our Recovering Journalist files, congrats to former AP reporter Jennifer Coleman, passed the Bar this year, is now a lawyer in Davis.