Cruz Bustamante

Cruz Bustamante (2005)

Cruz Miguel Bustamante (born January 4, 1953 in Dinuba , California ) is an American politician of the Democratic Party . Between 1999 and 2007 he was lieutenant governor of the state of California.

Career

Cruz Bustamante attended Tranquility High School . In the meantime he worked in the fields near San Joaquin . He then graduated from Fresno City College and California State University in Fresno . He later embarked on a political career as a member of the Democratic Party . Between 1993 and 1998 he was a member of the California State Assembly , chairing it in 1997 and 1998. In 1996 and 2000 he took part as a delegate to the Democratic National Conventions , at which President Bill Clinton and later Al Gore were nominated as presidential candidates.

In 1998, Bustamante was elected lieutenant governor of California alongside Gray Davis . He held this office after a re-election between 1999 and 2007. He was Deputy Governor and Chairman of the State Senate . Since 2003 he served under the new governor Arnold Schwarzenegger ; previously he had been clearly inferior to Republican Schwarzenegger as a Democratic candidate in the recall election that led to the replacement of Gray Davis . He only got 31 percent of the vote, Schwarzenegger 48 percent, while the remainder went to third-party candidates.

In 2006, Bustamante ran unsuccessfully for the California Insurance Commissioner . In 2012, it was assumed that Bustamante could run for the US House of Representatives . But in the end he renounced this candidacy.

Web links

• Cruz Bustamante in the nndb (English)
• Cruz Bustamante at The Political Graveyard
• Project Vote Smart