Republican aims to take seat being left behind by Tom McClintock.

Former State Assemblyman Tony Strickland held a gathering of supporters and the curious, reaffirming his candidacy for State Senate and holding court Wednesday morning, at Mimi’s Café in Valencia.

The group was there to applaud Strickland’s decision to run for the 19^th district State Senate seat, being vacated by Tom McClintock, who is running for Congress in Northern California. Strickland introduced his election team and said he will run on a platform of fiscal responsibility.

“California doesn’t have a revenue problem, it has a spending problem,” he said. “If a household ran their pocketbook like the state of California, they’d be in jail.”

Strickland, who made an unsuccessful run for State Controller in 2006, hopes to join his wife, Audra, in Sacramento, where she represents the 37^th Assembly district. During his terms in the Assembly in the late 1990s, Strickland was known for leading the charge that forced then-Governor Gray Davis to disclose expensive energy contracts that were negotiated in secret between the state of California and energy companies.

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