Joe Nation readies for state senate 'sprint'

Former California Assemblyman Joe Nation on Saturday formally announced his bid for the state Senate’s Third District seat in what is expected to be among the state’s more expensive and heated campaigns of the season.

Nation is challenging incumbent Sen. Carole Migden in the June 3 primary alongside San Francisco Assemblyman Mark Leno and Joe Alioto Veronese, a San Francisco police commissioner and civil rights attorney.

The Third District includes portions of San Francisco, all of Marin County and south Sonoma County, including Petaluma, Rohnert Park and areas west of Santa Rosa.

Nation, a San Rafael climate change consultant, represented Marin and southern Sonoma County in the Assembly for six years before he was termed out in 2006.

He is the only one of the four Democratic candidates from outside San Francisco, where about 45 percent of the district constituency resides.

Fifty-percent of the district’s residents are in Sonoma and Marin counties.

“It’s late to be getting in in some respects,” Nation said after his announcement in a patch of wetlands near the Petaluma Marina on Saturday.

Migden and Leno have been campaigning for more than a year already, while Veronese began only slight later, he said.

But Nation said he was “thrilled” by poll results showing a dead heat between him, Migden and Leno if he entered the race, with lesser known Veronese trailing.

“I know it will be a sprint,” he said, but plans to take a leave from his consulting work, allowing more time to campaign.

“I more or less have 16 hours a day, seven days a week to work, and I think I can get it done,” he said.