ARMENIANS AID POOCHIGIAN’S CAMPAIGN
Hank Shaw
Capitol Bureau Chief
Stockton Record, CA
Aug. 14, 2006
Ethnic pride may have helped spur donations in run for attorney general
SACRAMENTO – Most candidates raise the bulk of their cash from
unions or builders or insurance companies. Not state attorney general
candidate Chuck Poochigian: The fount of his campaign cash comes from
fellow Armenians.
Poochigian, a state senator from Fresno, whose district includes part
of San Joaquin County, will face former Gov. Jerry Brown, now mayor
of Oakland, in autumn’s election for California’s top cop.
A Record analysis of Poochigian’s fund-raising shows he has at least
900 Armenian contributors who have combined to pump more than $780,000
into his campaign.
Compare this to Brown, who state records show has just nine Armenian
contributors.
It is a tremendous show of ethnic pride: According to a calculation
based on population estimates from the Armenian National Committee,
only about 500,000 voting-age people of Armenian ancestry live in
California.
The reason for this outpouring of support is simple, according to
interviews with dozens of Poochigian contributors: Armenians take
care of their own.
"We Armenians stick together – we’re a close-knit group of people,"
said Ted Katzakian of Lodi. "It’s just Armenian pride more than
anything."
Even tennis star Andre Agassi, who has some Armenian heritage,
contributed $10,000 to Poochigian.
"It is a very large extended family," Poochigian said.
Indeed, nearly every one of the dozen Central Valley Poochigian
contributors interviewed for this story had a direct connection to the
candidate; one had a sister who dated one of Poochigian’s relatives,
another had a cousin who went to California State University, Fresno,
with him, a third has met him at any number of Armenian community
functions.
Poochigian deflects the uniqueness of his situation, noting that the
Portuguese have always helped their own in the San Joaquin Valley and
the Vietnamese were instrumental in getting Orange County Assemblyman
Van Tran elected two years ago.
"I’m certain that there’s a lot of groups that seek to be supportive
of people of their own background," he said.
Turlock melon farmer Berj Moosekian says ethnic pride helped a little
when he decided to write Poochigian a check, but he said it’s not
that related to being Armenian. "It’s because he supports Valley
issues. He’s sensible and doesn’t go to extremes."
Moosekian and the others see Poochigian as something akin to the
Second Coming of George Deukmejian. "The Duke" was California’s first
elected Armenian in the 1960s, and later became attorney general and
then governor from 1983-1991.
"He reminds me so much of Deukmejian," said Ralph Saroyan of
Stockton. "In my mind, he is the antithesis of a typical politician."
Poochigian got into politics volunteering on Deukmejian’s 1978 campaign
and later worked for him during the last two years of his gubernatorial
term. He calls Deukmejian his role model.
Both men are viewed by those who know them as hard-working,
intellectual conservatives, polite to a fault and deeply interested –
critics say obsessed – with law-and-order issues.
It was Deukmejian who as a Long Beach state senator sponsored the
legislation that re-instated the death penalty in California. Jerry
Brown vetoed it and then suffered one of California’s rare veto
overrides. The Duke then served as attorney general during Brown’s
second term. They remain ideological foes.
Deukmejian is widely considered responsible for pushing the Armenian
community into politics. Deukmejian said the effort took years,
but it worked: "I have often said I never would have made it without
their support."
He’s transferred that support to Poochigian by writing fund-raising
letters on his behalf.
Whether it will lead Poochigian to victory in November remains to be
seen. Few Californians know who he is, and he trails Brown 54 percent
to 33 percent in last month’s Field Poll. Brown also has $1.7 million
more in his campaign account than Poochigian heading into the fall.
Deukmejian thinks money will matter: He says voters need to get to
know Poochigian as much as they need to know the details of Brown’s
time as governor and mayor of Oakland, and the only way to do that
statewide is through expensive radio and TV ads.
"It’s an uphill effort, but so was mine," Deukmejian said. "If he
(Poochigian) and his campaign can raise enough money to get his
message across, I believe this is doable."