Dave Allan Says Assembly Run as Independent Will Be Tough ‘For Sure’

A day after announcing plans for a state Assembly race, Councilman Dave Allan said he was focusing more on Thanksgiving with his family than on the challenges of ending his party affiliation in the new 79th District.

Will running as an independent be tough?

“Oh yeah, for sure,” Allan said in a phone interview Tuesday afternoon. But “I try to represent everybody to the best of my ability.”

According to the county Registrar of Voters Office, Allan on Wednesday was stil registered as a Democrat. He changed party affiliations in January 2008 from Republican to Democrat.

In Sacramento, a representative of the state Secretary of State’s Office said Allan will probably be listed on a ballot as “declined to state” or “no party preference,” since California already has a formal American Independent Party. 

Allan, 56, is serving out his third four-year term in La Mesa, and said in a phone interview: “I’m still a councilman for a year. I still have issues [to tackle] with the city.” 

Since deciding to run for state Assembly a couple of weeks ago, he said he hasn’t given a lot of thought to his campaign team or financing. He vowed to be ready in the “first of the year,” however.

“I’ll enjoy the holidays with my family,” he said. “We’ll be ready to rock in January.”

He said that he decided on his own to announce his candidacy from the public lectern instead of the council dais, adding that he didn’t ask anyone on how he should break the news publicly.

Allan recalled his recent West Coast motorcycle journey over the summer, when he thought about stepping down from the council, and remarked on the beauty of California.

“You pledge allegiance to be American,” he said. “This is a great state. [But] it’s sad the way it is.”

According to a spokeswoman for the Fair Political Practices Commission in Sacramento, Allan will first file a Form 501 to become a candidate and within 10 days pay a fee of $1,000. When he has filed a Form 410, he’ll have set up a finance committee with an ID number assigned by the state.

Later, he’ll file semiannual financial disclosures (called Form 460s)—due Jan. 31 and July 31. If he finishes in the top two of the June 5 open primary, he’ll also file disclosures 45 days before the November election and about two weeks before the presidential vote.

On June 8, 2010, California voters approved Proposition 14, which created the Top Two Candidates Open Primary Act.

The state says: “Except for the office of U.S. president and county central committee offices, offices that used to be known as ‘partisan offices … are now known as ‘voter-nominated’ offices.”

Under the Open Primary Act, all candidates running in a primary election, regardless of their party preference, appear on a single primary election ballot and voters can vote for any candidate.

“The top two overall vote-getters—not the top vote-getter from each qualified party and anyone using the independent nomination process—will move on to the General Election,” the state says.

Candidates for voter-nominated office such as Assembly can choose whether to list their party preference on the primary and General Election ballots.

Political parties can no longer formally nominate candidates for voter-nominated offices, so a candidate who finishes in the top two at the primary election and advances to the General Election is not the official nominee of any party for the office, the state says.

The Secretary of State’s Office representative said she didn’t know how often someone has run for office under three designations over time.

“That isn’t something we would track,” she said. “We really couldn’t say.”