In the Democratic primary for secretary of state, voters will choose between two state legislators, neither well-known. Sen. Debra Bowen of Marina Del Rey, who has an impressive record of fighting for California consumers, is the more qualified. Bowen is running against Sen. Deborah Ortiz of Sacramento for the Democratic nomination. The winner will face appointed incumbent Bruce McPherson, a moderate who is unopposed in the Republican primary.
Legislating in the Capitol's partisan environment is far different than running the secretary of state's office. That job demands a nonpartisan approach and the skill to handle complex challenges. Bowen has shown she can handle such tasks.
As secretary of state, Bowen could help finish a job she started in the Legislature to improve the public's ability to track bills. In 1993, she sponsored legislation to place all legislators' bills and their committee analyses on the Internet. In 1995, she wrote the nation's first law to help state agencies store their documents on computers.
Bowen has excelled in identity-theft legislation. She sponsored the first credit report "freeze law" in the country in 2001, which gives Californians the right to freeze access to their credit reports. That blocks thieves from opening accounts with stolen personal information.
She also expanded California's security-breach notification laws, requiring companies and governments to tell people when sensitive personal information has been hacked into.
Bowen also has taken on some of the Legislature's most complex challenges. When the California electricity market crashed a few years back in a badly flawed attempt at relying on private markets, Bowen helped piece the system back together.
She required operators of the state grid to hold public meetings and to release records of their activities. She didn't just rail at the private energy companies that were gouging the state. She worked on preventing the disaster from happening again.
Ortiz long has been a fierce champion of her causes, but one of her most notable successes — championing Senate Bill 400, which expanded pension benefits for public employee unions — triggered a disastrous domino effect up and down the state. And her failures tend to exemplify the kind of complex issues typical of the secretary of state's job.
The next secretary of state will continue to grapple with issues related to electronic voting and campaign disclosure. Bowen is a steady, smart leader. She would make a fine secretary of state.
http://www.modbee.com/opinion/story/12225489p-12966157c.html
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