This past weekend, Assemblymember Christine Kehoe hosted a kick-off rally for her campaign for 39th State Senate District. A crowd of supporters for Kehoe, a Democrat, turned out to help rally support, including incumbent Senator Dede Alpert, Senator Denise Ducheny of the neighboring 40th Senate District, Congressmember Bob Filner, Deputy Mayor Toni Atkins and Councilmember Scott Peters.

“There is no one more effective in government that I know than Christine Kehoe,” Filner said. “She’s done a great job on behalf of her constituents. She knows what they think. She knows how to get what they want. She delivers and they reelect her and it’s as simple as that. Christine Kehoe has the right priorities. She’s going to be fighting for education and healthcare and safe neighborhoods and housing.”

Kehoe will have some big shoes to fill in replacing Dede Alpert in the 39th District seat. Alpert has held the position for 14 years and currently chairs the Senate Appropriations Committee; the Joint Committee on the Master Plan for Education; the Select Committee on Family, Child and Youth Development; and the Select Committee on Genetics, Genetic Technologies and Public Policy. She has received numerous awards over the years for her work on education and health issues.

“We’re very fortunate in this state when we look at our legislature… that the Democrats control both the Senate and the Assembly, but when you lose a few key races those things can change dramatically,” Alpert said. “Because of the way redistricting was done, one of the few competitive races in the state is the race that Christine is in.”

Alpert noted the fundraising power of Governor Schwarzenegger for the Republican Party and that this is one of the few races where they can funnel money into driving the Republican vote.

“What is going to happen in the Assembly is that every dollar that they have is going to come into San Diego in the races that are under this one,” Ducheny added. “Against Lori [Saldana, Democratic candidate for the 76th Assembly District] and against Patty [Davis, a candidate for the 78th Assembly District], so they are really going to be cranking to turn out the vote in Christine’s district, which is not helpful to any of us.”

The 39th State Senate District represents over 750,000 San Diegans in a diverse area that runs from the coastal community of Del Mar down to Lemon Grove.

“I’ve campaigned in this district now; this will be my sixth time in 11 years and I think I know these voters well and I believe that they know me,” Kehoe said. “This is a pro-choice, pro-education and pro-environment district and that’s why we are going to win.”

Kehoe also took aim at her Republican opposition in the race, former judge Larry Stirling, who became notorious in the GLBT community in the ’90s when he ordered his courtroom disinfected after hearing a case that included a gay man who had AIDS. His actions earned him the nickname “Lysol Larry”.

“My opponent signed up to run at 4:00 on the last afternoon of the filing period so I have to take that as a sign of a guy who is not too enthusiastic about getting in a race,” Kehoe said. “He is not pro-choice, he is not pro-environment and he is not pro-education. He’s out of step with the voters in this district. What I am campaigning for and raising resources for is so that we get that message out to the folks that are going to go to the polls.”

Kehoe will be vacating her seat in the 76th Assembly District, and seconded the importance in the races for State Assembly taking place within the 39th Senate District. Her seat is now up for grabs between Saldana and Republican Tricia Hunter, a candidate who has made several recent efforts to reach out the GLBT community.

So far, Hunter has garnered high-profile endorsements from Nicole Murray-Ramirez, District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis and the Log Cabin Republicans.

In the 78th Assembly District, a seat that has traditionally gone Democrat, Davis is challenging Republican Shirley Horton, who beat out Vince Hall in 2002 to turn the seat Republican for the first time since its inception.

“We need to maintain a pro-choice, pro-civil rights, pro-education and pro-environment legislature,” Kehoe stressed. “Let me tell you, when you get up to Sacramento, no matter what you think of these folks locally, the party line counts tremendously. The Republicans do not get to stray from the party line. We will never get a pro-choice vote out of a Republican member. They may not vote at all, which they consider a step in the right direction, which I consider useless. We will never get a pro-environment vote, we will never get a pro-gay vote, we will never get an education-funding vote.”