Lungren Aide to Run for Attorney General

SACRAMENTO — David Stirling, a conservative Republican best known for his support of tough sentencing laws and his battles with the United Farm Workers, announced his candidacy Wednesday for attorney general.

A former judge, legislator and chief counsel to the state Agricultural Labor Relations Board, Stirling has been chief deputy to Atty. Gen. Dan Lungren for the past seven years and is widely regarded as Lungren’s protege.

But Lungren, who is seeking the Republican nomination for governor in 1998, said his long-standing policy precludes any primary endorsement, although he praised Stirling’s work as his second-in-command.

“He’s done an excellent job. He’s been with me from the very beginning, and I wish him well,” Lungren said.

Stirling said in his formal announcement that he was running “to continue the Lungren administration’s successful efforts to keep career criminals and sexual predators behind bars and enforce California’s death penalty.”

A native of Louisiana, Stirling was elected to the state Assembly in 1976 representing Whittier, Hacienda Heights and other suburbs east of Los Angeles. After three Assembly terms, Stirling ran unsuccessfully in 1982 for the Republican nomination for attorney general.

The following year, then-Gov. George Deukmejian appointed him general counsel of the ALRB.