POOCHIGIAN SEEKS TO BE STATE’S TOP COP
State Senator Running For Attorney General
KCRA.com, CA
Oct 25 2006
FRESNO, Calif. — State Sen. Chuck Poochigian is one of the candidates
for state Attorney General.
His family runs three generations deep in the San Joaquin Valley.
Poochigian was born in Fresno, and while most of his family farmed,
he started a law practice.
He said he was never especially political until a fellow Armenian —
George Deukmejian — ran for attorney general in 1978.
"That first campaign that I was involved in with Deukemejian really
framed everything that followed for me, because I was then convinced
and absolutely today that George Deukmejian sought higher office out
of a sense of duty," Poochigian said.
It was also the beginning of Poochigian’s battles against the policies
of Jerry Brown. It turns out their contest for attorney general today
has been brewing for more than two decades.
"Those were the years when criminal justice was at the forefront. The
issues we faced then were very, very important — Jerry Brown was
governor, the crime rate was the highest it had ever been in the
history of California and ever since, and the then-governor Jerry
Brown had vetoed the death penalty. That was a bill carried by
Governor Deukmejian. I’m committed to retiring him. His career is
what it is. It’s time for him to move on and I hope to be the one to
make that happen," Poochigian said.
Poochigian’s political career began in the Deukmejian and Wilson
administrations.
One of his jobs was finding judges to nominate. What he asked of
those appointees then, he said he asks of himself now.
"Above all, fealty to the law, a commitment to do what’s right by way
of the law irrespective of personal views or attitudes or prejudices,"
Poochigian said.
His work in the state Assembly and Senate includes bringing down
costs in the Worker’s Compensation System, and public safety issues
ranging from identity theft to sexual predators.
His empathy for victims can be traced back to his own grandmother’s
experience in Armenia.
"She saw the most unspeakable acts committed against her mother
and her father, who was a priest. And all but one member of her
family, a sibling, in a very large family was tortured and killed,"
Poochigian said.
Today, Poochigian is a grandfather, which he said gives him another
reason to seek the job of the state’s top cop.
"For justice and for the safety of our children and our grandchildren,
our seniors and everyone, and I think the attorney general — the role
of attorney general — can have a profound impact on all of that,"
Poochigian said.
Although Poochigian is known today as a conservative Republican, he
said in his early days he was a Democrat and a big admirer of John F.
Kennedy. He said that since then, his politics have matured.