Nestande Changes Political Course

After nine months of campaigning for the job of lieutenant governor, Bruce Nestande, a Republican supervisor from Orange County, made a mid-course correction Thursday: he announced he would run for secretary of state this June instead.

Nestande, who at 48 was making his first bid for statewide office, said the decision was forced on him because an unusually strict Orange County campaign ordinance hindered him in raising the $4 million he would have needed to campaign for lieutenant governor.

But Nestande said he believed he could operate within the county law and still raise enough money for an effective but half-as-expensive campaign for secretary of state.