The Skinny: On the run

In the term limits era, it always pays to look ahead to the next round of legislative elections. And this particular election looks like it could see a lot of former Capitol staffers turn into candidates. In the Sacramento area, Van Tran’s chief of staff, Paul Hegyi, is eyeing another run for the seat held by Alyson Huber. Republican staffer Doug Haaland, was also reportedly considering a bid. And we hear that former Schwarzenegger legislative director Richard Costigan has been talking to folks about running for the Sacramento-area seat held by Republican Roger Niello. Adam Gray, chief of staff to Sen. Ron Calderon, is looking at running for the Merced-area seat being vacated by Cathleen Galgiani, who was a staffer herself before winning the seat held by her former boss, Barbara Matthews. And the race for Dave Jones’s Assembly seat is turning into a battle of city council members including former Denise Ducheny and Cruz Bustamante staffer Kevin McCarty. Roger Dickinson and Lauren Hammond are also in that race…Here’s a sign your campaign is going in the wrong direction: when your campaign sends out an “In case you missed it” press release touting “reluctant support” for two of your five ballot measures. But since the reluctant supporter was Sen. Dianne Feinstein, hey, Team Schwarzenegger will take it. DiFi opted to back Props. 1A and 1B, but came out against Proposition 1C in a statement released Tuesday – a statement that was re-released by the Budget Reform Now committee Tuesday afternoon….