The 2010 California Attorney General election was held on November 2, 2010, to choose the Attorney General of

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

. The primary election was held on June 8, 2010.

Incumbent The incumbent is the current holder of an office or position, usually in relation to an election. In an election for president, the incumbent is the person holding or acting in the office of president before the election, whether seeking re-ele ...

Attorney General

Jerry Brown Edmund Gerald Brown Jr. (born April 7, 1938) is an American lawyer, author, and politician who served as the 34th and 39th governor of California from 1975 to 1983 and 2011 to 2019. A member of the Democratic Party, he was elected Secretary of ...

, a

Democrat Democrat, Democrats, or Democratic may refer to: Politics *A proponent of democracy, or democratic government; a form of government involving rule by the people. *A member of a Democratic Party: **Democratic Party (United States) (D) **Democratic ...

, was elected Governor of California. The two major candidates were district attorneys from Los Angeles County and

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

Republican Republican can refer to: Political ideology * An advocate of a republic, a type of government that is not a monarchy or dictatorship, and is usually associated with the rule of law. ** Republicanism, the ideology in support of republics or agains ...

Steve Cooley Stephen Lawrence Cooley (born May 1, 1947) is an American politician and prosecutor. He was the Los Angeles County District Attorney from 2000 to 2012. Cooley was re-elected in 2004 and again in 2008. In 2010, Cooley won the Republican nominati ...

and Democrat

Kamala Harris Kamala Devi Harris ( ; born October 20, 1964) is an American politician and attorney who is the 49th vice president of the United States. She is the first female vice president and the highest-ranking female official in U.S. history, as well ...

respectively. On November 24, 2010, Cooley conceded to Harris, giving the Democrats a sweep of statewide executive offices. On November 30, Harris declared victory. Harris was the state's first female attorney general, first

African American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...

attorney general (father from Jamaica), and first Asian American (mother from India) state attorney general when her term began in January 2011.

Campaign

For much of the election cycle following the primary election, political analysts theorized early on that the strength of Cooley's name after being twice elected District Attorney in Democratic-Stronghold Los Angeles County, being viewed as a rising star in the

California Republican Party The California Republican Party (CAGOP) is the affiliate of the United States Republican Party in the U.S. state of California. The party is based in Sacramento and is led by chair Jessica Millan Patterson. As of October 2020, Republicans repre ...

along with the strength of

Meg Whitman Margaret Cushing Whitman (born August 4, 1956) is the US ambassador to Kenya, an American business executive and former gubernatorial candidate for California. She is a board member of Procter & Gamble and General Motors. Whitman was previously ...

's well-funded campaign anchoring the California Republican ticket in 2010 made

the initial favorite by a slight margin to win the election.

coalesced Democratic support with her opposition to

Proposition 8 Proposition 8, known informally as Prop 8, was a California ballot proposition and a state constitutional amendment intended to ban same-sex marriage; it passed in the November 2008 California state elections and was later overturned in cou ...

, which Cooley promised to defend in court, opposing the unpopular Proposition 23 and any proposal for an

SB 1070 The Support Our Law Enforcement and Safe Neighborhoods Act (introduced as Arizona Senate Bill 1070 and commonly referred to as Arizona SB 1070) is a 2010 legislative Act in the U.S. state of Arizona that was the broadest and strictest an ...

-style law in California. Harris benefitted from an endorsement and joint appearance with President

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the ...

at a rally at the

University of Southern California , mottoeng = "Let whoever earns the palm bear it" , religious_affiliation = Nonsectarian—historically Methodist , established = , accreditation = WSCUC , type = Private research university , academic_affiliations = , endowment = $8.1 ...

before election day as well as a focus of the Los Angeles County Democratic Party on promoting her candidacy in Los Angeles County towards the final weeks of the campaign, which promised to make the race competitive. On election night, the headliners on the Republican ticket,

and

Carly Fiorina Cara Carleton "Carly" Fiorina (''née'' Sneed; born September 6, 1954) is an American businesswoman and politician, known primarily for her tenure as CEO of Hewlett-Packard (HP). As chief executive officer of HP from 1999 to 2005, Fiorina was ...

were soundly defeated by

and Barbara Boxer, with Democrats having a healthy margin to declare victory in every other statewide contest.

Abel Maldonado Abel O. Maldonado Jr. (born August 21, 1967) is an American politician who served as the 48th lieutenant governor of California from April 27, 2010 to January 10, 2011. As of 2022, he is the last Republican to serve as lieutenant governor of C ...

, who was defeated for his reelection bid as Lieutenant Governor, stated that errors of the Whitman and Fiorina campaigns dragged Republican candidates on the bottom of the ticket down along with the fading fortunes of Whitman and Fiorina towards the end of the race. The only bright spot statewide for the California Republican Party that night were early returns showing Cooley with a lead of up to eight points, in which he and many news organizations declared victory. However, the next morning, returns from Los Angeles County, which was believed to be a Cooley stronghold came in strong for

, removing one of Cooley's key advantages and making the race too close to call. Cooley then canceled a victory press conference scheduled for that day. Los Angeles and San Francisco County reported their returns, which favored Harris with less than 38,000 votes (45.9% versus 45.7%) separating both candidates at the end of counting that day. On November 24, 2010, Cooley conceded the race when it was determined that he was going to be unable to overcome the 50,000-vote lead that Harris had built up and maintained during the past week, with a majority of the uncounted ballots coming from counties which Harris won. The closest statewide race of the 2010 cycle in California, Cooley was the top vote-getter of the 2010 Republican ticket, while Harris's victory gave the Democratic Party a clean sweep of all of California's statewide offices - a feat the party had last accomplished in 2002.

Democratic primary

Candidates

* Rocky Delgadillo, attorney and former

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...

City Attorney A city attorney is a position in city and municipal government in the United States. The city attorney is the attorney representing the municipality. Unlike a district attorney or public defender, who usually handles criminal cases, a city att ...

who ran in the Democratic primary in 2006 *

, District Attorney of

* Chris Kelly, attorney and former chief privacy officer of

Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin Mosk ...

Ted Lieu Ted W. Lieu (; born March 29, 1969) is an American politician and Air Force Reserve Command colonel who has represented California's 33rd congressional district in the U.S. House of Representatives since 2015. The district includes much of wes ...

, former military prosecutor and assemblymember from the 53rd district * Pedro Nava, attorney and assemblymember from the 35th district * Mike Schmier, employee rights attorney * Alberto Torrico, assemblymember from the 20th district, former Majority Leader of the State Assembly, and workers' rights attorney

Results

Republican primary

Candidates

, Los Angeles County District Attorney * John C. Eastman, constitutional law attorney and former dean of Chapman University School of Law *

Tom Harman Thomas George Harman (born May 30, 1941) is an American politician. He is a former Republican member of the California State Senate who had previously been a three-term member of the California State Assembly. Both seats represent portions of ...

, attorney and state senator representing the 35th district

Results

Minor parties

American Independent Party

Results

Green Party

* Peter Allen, attorney, former prosecutor, administrative law judge, and consumer advocate

Results

Libertarian Party

* Timothy Hannan, attorney, mediator and arbitrator

Results

Peace and Freedom Party

* Robert Evans, attorney, activist, former Recording Secretary of the Peace and Freedom Party

Results

General election

Polling

Results

References

External links

Peter AllenSteve CooleyRocky DelgadilloJohn EastmanRobert EvansTimothy HannanTom HarmanKamala HarrisChris KellyTed LieuPedro NavaMike SchmierDiane TemplinAlberto Torrico
{{Kamala Harris Attorney General election, 2010 2010

Kamala Harris