Walters: Portantino top speaker candidate

I’ve been told he’s a long shot. That he is not Latino. That he’s not from L.A. That there are closer associates to Nunez that have a much better shot at the speakership.

But that hasn’t stopped Pasadena Democrat Anthony Portantino from positioning himself at the forefront of the race to succeed Fabian Nunez as leader of the California Assembly, according to the SacBee’s Dan Walters.

When we last wrote about this, we noted that Portantino was a prolific fund-raiser with ties to labor unions and in his first term in office, all apparent prerequisites for a successful speaker candidate. But at the time it seemed that while the former La Canada Flintridge mayor had a better chance at the post than his other colleagues in the San Gabriel Valley Caucus, he was likely a long shot compared to LA-centric, Nunez proteges such as Karen Bass or Kevin De Leon.

Since then Portantino has raised even more money ($535,000 in 2007) and according to Walters, could soon up his union clout by securing support from the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor.